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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 





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THE GIST OF IT 



A PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN LIFE. 



BY 



REV. THOMAS E. BARR, B.A. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



REV. D. 8. GREGORY, D.D., 

EX-PRESIDENT OP LAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY. 



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NEW YORK: 

A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON, 

714 Broadway. 

1887. 



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Copyright, 1887, 
By THOMAS E. BARR. 



RAND AVERY COMPANY, 

BLECTROTYPERS AND PRINTERS, 

BOSTON. 



Co iHp JFatJer, 
EDWARD BARE, 



IN FILIAL RECOGNITION OF HIS WISE COUNSEL, FAITHFUL 
INSTRUCTION AND TRAINING, CONSISTENT EXAMPLE, 
RARELY SYMPATHETIC AND HELPFUL COMPAN- 
IONSHIP, AND LIFE OF PATIENT SELF- 
SACRIFICE IN EARNEST DEFENSE 
AND ADVOCACY OF THE 
BLESSED GOSPEL; 



&nto ta Jlp iftotjjer, 
MILLJA BARR, 



A SLIGHT TRIBUTE TO THE INFLUENCE AND INSPIRATION 
OF HER TENDERNESS, HER- HOPEFULNESS, HER 
GUIDANCE, HER LIFE OF CHRISTIAN SELF- 
DENIAL AND EARNESTNESS: 



2H)fe Uolume 



IS, WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE, AFFECTIONATELY 
DEDICATED. 



PEEFAOE. 



This little volume originated primarily in the author's 
efforts to find for himself sure footing in the shifting, 
conflicting, phases of modern thought, and determine 
a satisfactory explanation and scheme of life-activity. 
Reaching, at length, through long and sometimes bitter 
struggle, settled convictions regarding the true solution 
of the life-problem, the right basis, method, and end, of 
life-effort, he found many, especially among young people, 
who felt private and public presentation of these conclu- 
sions to be helpful in their own like endeavors to settle 
the same questions. At the suggestion of numerous 
friends, permanent form is here given the discussion. 
The question is the old but ever-new one, with which the 
minds of all thinking men and women are more or less 
occupied. The material used in the argument has been 
gathered from many sources, and is largely of the " com- 
mon fund " of such discussions; but where the author 
was under special obligation to some individual writer, 
proper credit has been given. It is hoped that there may 
be found sufficient freshness in the grouping and clothing 
of the ideas, to attract and hold the reader's thoughtful 



vi PREFACE. 

attention. Of him the author would make one request. 
The treatise is an argument, organized throughout as 
such, and all its parts are determined in their form and 
statement by their place and relation as elements of one 
thought-system. It is therefore asked that the book be 
read, not in detached portions, but continuously and as 
a whole. Great care has been taken to divest the pre- 
sentation of all technicalities, and make the progress of 
thought direct and clear. The detailed analysis which 
precedes the argument, with the cross-references scattered 
throughout the treatise, will, it is hoped, assist in making 
clear the connection of thought. For general reference 
an index is added at the close. 

Gratitude and affection prompt a fuller statement here 
than space permits of the many friends who have aided 
and encouraged the preparation of this treatise. Special 
acknowledgment is due and is gladly made to my father, 
Rev. E. Barr, Lafayette, Ind. ; to Dr. A. T. Ormond, 
Professor of Mental Science and Logic, Princeton College ; 
and to Rev. Dr. D. S. Gregory, Ex-President of Lake For- 
est University, — all of whom have shown marked kindness 
in the revision, though at considerable sacrifice of their 
time, of the manuscript of the work. To Dr. Gregory 
unusual tribute must be paid. He generously granted 
the use of material presented by him in college ; and 
hence the discussions in psychology and ethics (Part I. 
chaps, i. and v.) are taken mainly from that source, some- 
times more literally than the quotation-marks indicate. 
His self-sacrificing friendship and helpfulness, in days of 



PREFA CE. vii 

difficulty and discouragement, even more than his faith- 
ful and admirable scholastic discipline, call increasingly 
for grateful remembrance. 

The book has been written with direct reference to our 
own land and time, wherein, despite much of danger and 
foreboding, unparalleled opportunities for achievement in 
character-building and influence are offered. If it shall 
prove helpful to any one seeking to solve the momentous 
questions of life-action, these guides and helpers will feel 
that their interest has not been wholly unavailing, and 
the author's purpose will be fully realized. 

THOS. E. BARR. 
Beloit, Wis., November, 1887. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introductory Note, by Rev. Dr. D. S. Gregory . xiii 
Analysis of Argument xvii 



ARGUMENT. 



INTRODUCTION. 
Nature and Divisions of the Inquiry 



DISCUSSION. 

THE FACTS OF LIFE AND THEIR INTERPRETATION. 

PART I. 

TEE FACTS OF LIFE. 

CHAPTER I. 

What am I? 5 

Section J. —The Spirit Mechanism 6 

Section IL — The Physical Mechanism .... 45 

ix 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER II. page 

Where am I? 52 

Section J. —Place in Space 53 

Section II. — Place in Time 55 

Section III. — Place in the Scheme of Nature . 67 
Section IV. — Place in the Unfolding of the 

Thought-Life of the Race . . 84 

CHAPTER III. 

Whence am I ? 94 

Section J.— Matter . 101 

SECTION II.— Force . 122 

SECTION III.— Pantheism 131 

SECTION IV.— Theism 145 

CHAPTER IV. 

Whither am I going? 165 

Section J.— Life 166 

SECTION II.— Death 185 

SECTION III.— Immortality 189 

CHAPTER V. 
What is my Relation to my Situation, my Origin, 

my Future? 225 

SECTION J. — Relation to Situation 226 

Individual Duties 227 

Social Duties 244 

Duties in the Use of Nature . . . 249 
SECTION II. — Relation to Origin. — Duties to- 
ward God 260 

Section III. — Relation to Future ...... 278 



CONTENTS. Xi 

PART II. 

TEE INTERPRETATION OF TEE FACTS. 

CHAPTEK I. 
Fundamental Requisites 284 

CHAPTER II. 

Proposed Schemes 292 

Section J. —Pleasure 292 

Section II.— Wealth 295 

Section III. — F Ame 298 

Section IV.— Power 302 

SECTION V. — Self-secured Perfection .... 316 

CHAPTER III. 
The Problem Solved 318 

APPENDIX. 

The Logic of the Theistic Argument 331 

INDEX 343 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



A book should never go out to the public unless it can 
furnish some satisfactory reason for its being and publi- 
cation. This volume, on "The Gist of It," is designed 
to meet an imperative need of a certain class of readers 
to which it is specially addressed. There are ages in 
which scepticism is in the air in such a way as to affect 
all who breathe that air. The present is generally ad- 
mitted to be such an age. It is characterized not so 
much by a coarse and blatant infidelity, like that of a 
century ago, as by a subtle and scientific agnosticism. 
The old unbelief long ago condemned itself to the final 
rejection of all finer natures by its brutality ; the new 
has commended itself to the nobler and more refined 
circles by its real polish of diction, and by the apparent 
profundity of its matter. 

As a result of this peculiar character, the scepticism 
of the age exerts its most subtle and powerful influence 
upon the more intelligent and highly educated young 
men, and thereby often intrenches itself in our great 
centres of higher learning. It carries the ingenuous 
youth irresistibly into sensationalism in psychology, into 
hedonism or utilitarianism in ethics, into materialism in 
cosmology, into pessimism or atheism in religion, — 
in short, into godlessness, selfishness, and hopelessness 
in life. In this way it poisons the minds of those who 



XIV INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

are destined to become the leaders of the next generation, 
in morals, politics, and religion. That these youth are 
generous hearted, broad minded, and brilliantly endowed, 
only adds so much the more to the dangers that threaten 
the future of the church and society. 

The writer of this volume is a young man who has 
found it necessary to look carefully into all the present 
questions of scepticism for himself, to ply with inquiries 
the guides who thus in the name of culture and science 
led him into the darkness, to test and sift the arguments 
by which they attempted to convince him that their dark- 
ness was the true light ; and he now comes forward to 
lend a helping hand to those who are passing through 
like perplexities under like false guidance. He unfolds 
clearly and logically the elements of the great problem of 
human life as it presents itself before intelligent and 
educated youth, and ably and conclusively urges the 
Christian solution of that problem. 

The writer of this brief introduction has known the 
author in all the stages of his development from the 
beginnings of the preparatory school to the theological 
seminary. He has watched, with an interest approaching 
the paternal, the unfolding of his views in the class room, 
has heard the germinal thought of this volume presented 
at the College Commencement as the Valedictory Oration 
of his class, and has gone over the manuscript of the 
completed work with care. He earnestly commends the 
treatise to those who are endeavoring to settle, — as all 
intelligent men and women of this generation should 
settle, — on a sound and stable logical basis, the great 
practical questions of life that demand personal answers 
from each and all. They will find the book unique. 
There is no other with which we are acquainted that 
attempts to cover its ground. There is therefore a 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. XV 

sufficient reason for its being. It will not be found to 
be the toying of an unsophisticated youth with matters 
beyond his grasp ; but a connected and sustained argu- 
ment throughout, organized into a complete whole of 
thought. It can hardly fail to prove a mental discipline 
to those who read it ; while it will greatly enlarge their 
views of the factors and forces of human life, elevate 
their conceptions of its intellectual and moral aims, en- 
hance their estimate of the possibilities of an immortal 
destiny, and strengthen their faith in God and the Chris- 
tian system and religion, — in short, will help to lead them 
out of the shadows of the scepticism of the age, into the 
clear light of the Sun of Righteousness. 

DANIEL S. GREGORY. 

Halliday Grange, Morgan, Minn. 
November, 1887. 



ANALYSIS. 



INTRODUCTION. -NATURE AND DIVISIONS OP THE 
INQUIRY (pp. 1-4). 

1. Necessity of considering all the facts in any proposed 

enterprise. 

2. Distinction of essential facts. 

3. Application of principle to life. Statement of theme. 

4. Divisions of inquiry. Five questions. 



DISCUSSION. -THE PACTS OP LIFE AND THEIR 
INTERPRETATION (pp. 4-330). 

PART I.— THE FACTS OF LIFE (pp. 4-283). 

Chapter I. What am I? or, the mechanism of life-action 
(pp. 5-51). 
Introduction. — 1. Interest and intricacy of the inquiry. 

2. Statement of theme. The spirit in the 
body. 
Section I. — The spirit mechanism (pp. 6-44). 
Introduction. — Fundamental propositions of consciousness. 

1. The testimony of consciousness must never be 

questioned. 

2. Consciousness gives infallible witness to the self- 

activity, freedom, and unity, of the spirit. 
Discussion of these points (pp. 7-9). 
Topic I. — Examination of the simple powers. 
I. The knowing-power. 

1. Simple knowledge (p. 10). 
a. Sense-perception. Gives knowledge of matter and 
its properties. 

xvii 



XVlll ANALYSIS. 

Chapter I. Section I. — Continued. 

6. Consciousness. Gives knowledge of spirit and its 

activities. 
c. Intuition. Gives knowledge of underlying and 

conditioning facts, being, cause, space, time, 

etc. 

2. Memory (pp. 12, 13). 

a. Eetention. Keeps acquired knowledges out of 

consciousness. 
6. Reproduction. Brings back acquired knowledges 

into consciousness. 

c. Representation. Vividly presents knowledges in 

consciousness. 

d. Recognition. Recognizes knowledges. 

3. Comparison. Works out relations of knowledges 

(p. 14). 

a. Conception. Grasps simple knowledges in bundles. 

Concepts. 

b. Judgment. Compares two concepts with each 

other. 

c. Reasoning. Compares two concepts with a third 

in the syllogism (p. 15). 

4. Construction. Constructs knowledges in system 

(p. 16). 
a. Proof of such a power. 
6. Phases of the power. 
(a) Scientific construction. Works on the basis 

of the true (p. 17). 
(6) Artistic construction. Works on the basis of 

the beautiful, 
(c) Practical construction. Works on the basis 
of the good (p. 18). 
II. The power of emotion. 

1. Relation to knowing-power. 

a. Elements of emotion (p. 19). (a) Craving of 

spirit, (b) Knowledge of satisfaction, (c) Gen- 
eral rousing of spirit. (d) Focalizing of 
emotion in part of mechanism where craving is 
manifested. 

b. Illustration of hunger. 

2. Modes of manifestation. 



ANALYSIS. xix 

Chapter I. Section I. — Continued. 

a. Animal feelings (p. 20). (a) Sensations, {b) In- 

stinctive feelings, (c) Appetites. 

b. Rational sentiments (p. 22). (<x) Divisions as 

to form of feeling. 1. Affections. 2. Desires. 
(b) Divisions as to object (p. 23). 1. Personal 
sentiments. 2. Impersonal sentiments. 
III. The power of will (p. 24). 

1. Choice. (a) Spontaneous choice. (6) Rational 

preference. 

2. Volition (p. 25). Forms of purpose, (a) Immedi- 

ately attainable. (6) Future accomplishment, 
(c) Whole life. 

3. Exertion. 

a. Culmination of all spirit-activity. 

b. Steps in working, (a) Formation of plan, (b) Gath- 

ering up of means, (c) Actual putting forth 
of power in achievement. 
Topic II. — Examination of the complex powers. 

I. The moral nature, conscience (pp. 27-36). 

1. Facts of experience. 

a. Facts of the knowing-power (p. 27). Moral judg- 

ments, (a) Approbation and disapprobation. 
(b) Obligation, (c) Merit and demerit, (d) Free- 
dom, (e) Responsibility. 

b. Facts of the power of emotion (p. 29). Feelings 

with (a) Right action {b) Wrong action. 

c. Facts of the power of will. Will-action, (a) In 

one's own conduct, (b) In regard to the conduct 
of others. 

2. Facts of intuition (p. 31). 

a. Intuitive moral ideas. 

b. Intuitive moral judgments. 

c. Intuitive moral judgments as an inner law. (a) Rec- 

ognized by great thinkers (p. 33). (b) Shown 
in moral action (p. 35). 

d. Inner law as (a) Rule of action, (b) Expression 

of mission (p. 3G). 

II. The freedom of the will. 

1. All will-action involves choice. 



XX ANALYSIS. 

Chapter I. Section I. — Continued. 

a. Kinds. (a) Spontaneous choice. (6) Rational 

preference. 

b. Character of choice in rational preference, (a) Of 

ends. (6) Between alternatives, (c) Involves judg- 
ment, (d) Governed by categorical imperative. 

2. Responsibility a fact of consciousness. Two 

conditions, (a) Freedom, (b) Knowledge. 

3. Freedom. Self-determination according to the law 

of motive. 

4. Obligation, (a) Conditions freedom, (b) Results 

from moral law (p. 39). 
III. The aesthetic nature. 

1. Definition (p. 40). 

2. Subject-matter, beauty. Definition stated and 

established. 

3. Revealing of various forms and degrees (p. 42). 

4. Emotions aroused of varying forms (p. 43). 
Conclusion. — Summary of the working of the spirit- 
powers (p. 44). 

Section II. — The physical mechanism (pp. 45-49). 

I. Uses of the body (p. 46). 

1. The spirit's home. 

2. The spirit's medium of communication. 

3. The spirit's instrument for work. 

II. The make-up of the body. 

1. The bony system. 

2. The muscular system. 

3. The nervous system (p. 47). 

a. Office. 

b. Distinction of nerve-action and spirit-action. 

(a) Nerve-action necessary and predictable. Spirit- 

action neither. 

(b) Nerve- and spirit-action incommensurable. 

4. The system of coverings (p. 48). 

5. The systems of support, — respiration, digestion, 

circulation. 

6. The controlling power, life (p. 49). 
Conclusion. — 1. Answer to question summarized. 

2. Ideal man on this basis pictured. 

3. Wreck of spirit-life (p. 51). 



ANALYSIS. XXI 

Chapter II. Where am I ? or, the sphere and material of life- 
action (pp. 52-93). 
Introduction. — 1. Need for place and material of work. 

2. Statement of theme. 
Section I. — Place in space. 

I. Universe a mechanism (p. 54). 

II. Man's body a part of universe. So place fixed. 
Section II. — Place in time. Present date involves all past 

time, measured by: 

I. Its duration (p. 55). 

II. Its scope (pp. 56-59). 

1. All the development of the universe. 

2. All the life of all men of all time. 

III. Its achievements (pp. 60, 61). 

IV. Its accumulation of means of power for future 

achievement. 1. Physical (p. 62). 2. Mental (p. 63). 
3. Moral and religious (pp. 64-66). 
Section III. — Place in the scheme of Nature. Nature a 
system (p. 67). 

I. Inorganic world. 

1. Factors. 

a. Elements of matter, (a) Kinds. (6) Properties 
(p. 68). (c) Combination (p. 69). All under 
exact and necessary law. 

6. Forces of matter (p. 70). Chemism. Sound. 
Heat, light, electricity (p. 71). Mechanical forces 
(p. 72). All under exact and necessary law. 

2. Principles of construction. 

a. Absolute immutability and inexorableness of the 

laws of the material elements and forces. 

b. Adjustment and co-ordination of the forces and 

elements under these laws (pp. 73-75). • 

II. The sphere of life. 

1. The life-force, a. Definition (p. 76). b. Laws, (a) Only 

from pre-existing life, (b) Different forms not inter- 
changeable (p. 77). 

2. Divisions of the sphere of life. 

a. Plant life, (a) Organization, (b) Purposes. 1. To 
keep air in condition for animal life (p. 78). 
2. Furnish food for animal life (p. 79). 3. Fur- 
nish material for the work of animal life (p. 80). 



xxil ANALYSIS. 

Chapter II. Section III. — Continued. 

b. Animal life, (a) Contrast with plant life (p. 81). 
{b) Organization (p. 82). 
3. Summary of organization of the sphere of life. All 
culminates in the body of man, — the instrument of 
intelligence (p. 83). 
Section IV. — Place in the unfolding of the thought-life of the 
race. 

I. Ideas of ancient world. 1. Orient, centralized despotism 

(p. 84). 2. Greece, culture — physical and mental. 

3. Home, law and government (p. 85). 4. Hebrews, 
religion. 5. Teutons, honor, chivalry, personal liberty 
(p. 86). 

II. Ideas of Middle Ages. 1. Centralized church despotism. 

2. Feudalism. 3. Waking up in Crusades, Renaissance, 
Reformation (p. 87). 

III. Ideas of modern world. 

1. Brotherhood of man (p. 88). a. Unrecognized in 

ancient world, b. Means and measure of growth 
in modern life. c. Influence. 

2. The value of the individual (p. 89). a. Individual lost in 

state in ancient world, b. Individualizing tendencies 
of modern life (p. 91). c. Importance and influence. 
Conclusion. — 1. Summary of sphere and material of life- 
action (p. 92). 
2. Ideal man on this basis pictured. 
Chapter III. Whence am I ? or, the moral complexion of life- 
action (pp. 94-164). 
Introduction. — Discussion of the principle of causality. 

I. Inquiry for a cause. 1. Universal and spontaneous. 

2. Arises on observation of change (p. 96). 3. Essen- 
tial idea is power, efficiency (p. 97). 

II. Inductive tests of supposed cause (pp. 97, 98). 1. Must 

be real. 2. Must be adequate. 3. Must be appropriate. 

4. Must, if possible, be known. 5. Must account for 
all the facts. 

III. Statement of theme: The cause of the universe — 
what? (p. 99). 

IV. Statement of answers. 

1. Discarded hypotheses, a. Eternity of present universe. 
6. Infinite regress of evolving universes. 



ANALYSIS. XXlil 

Chapter III. — Continued. 

2. Present hypotheses, a. Scientific basis, Cause of the 

Universe is One, self-existent, eternal (p. 100). 

b. Forms, (a) Matter. (6) Force, (c) Pantheism. 

(d) Theism. 

Section I. — Matter. 1. Historical genesis of hypothesis 

(p. 101). 2. Statement. 3. Three fundamental 

assumptions. 

I. Assumption first. Matter is eternal (p. 102). 

1. Assumption unsupported. 

a. By hypotheses of nature of atom. 

(a) Boscovitch's. Resolves matter into force. 

(b) Sir William Thomson's vortex atom. 

1. Fluid frictionless, self-generation of rotation 

impossible (p. 104). 

2. Fluid friction, atom destroyed by friction. 

6. By statements of authorities (p. 105). (a) Professor 
Clerk-Maxwell, (b) Professor Flint, (c) Duke of 
Argyll (p. 106). 

2. Objection. Present form of matter a development. 

Matter essentially indestructible. 

3. Answer. 

a. Indestructibility can be affirmed only of matter as at 

present constituted (p. 107). 

b. Idea of prior form is pure conjecture. 

c. Eternity necessitates self-existence ; and that, self- 

activity. Matter not self-active (p. 108). 

II. Assumption second. Matter has one primary form. 
Assumption unwarranted ; for, 

1. Sixty-four primary elements now recognized. 

2. Differences of these irreconcilable. 

3. Tendency to increase the number (p. 109). 

III. Assumption third. Matter possesses in potency, and 

evolves, all being. 

1. Distinguish hypothesis from theistic evolution. 

2. Assumption unverified. 

a. Assumes eternity and self-existence of matter (p. 111). 

b. Attributes to matter properties it does not possess. 

(a) Life. But matter, now and always, not-living. 

(b) Self-co-ordinating power. But (p. 114), 
1. Matter no such power. 



XXIV ANALYSIS. 

Chapter III. Section I. — Continued. 

2. Assumes limitless time for development (p. 115). 

3. Assumes a gradual development by inter-action 

of function and environment. But, 

a. Kelations of parts necessitate often simulta- 

neous variation. 

b. Variation sometimes necessary to life at all. 

c. Simultaneous variation of parts, of parts as mu- 

tually related, of system of parts as related 
to environment, often necessary. 

4. Inconsistent with observed phenomena (p. 117). 
(c) Intelligence and free-will. This shown baseless 

(p. 118). 
c. Matter cannot account for the unity of consciousness 
and personal identity (p. 120). 
Conclusion. — Hypothesis rejected. Matter not the first 
cause (p. 121). 
Section II. — Force. Statement of hypothesis. 

I. Did force originate matter? (p. 124). 1. Statement of 

authorities. 2. No knowledge of force save in matter. 

II. Is matter simply localized force? So Boscovitch. 

Scientific world not disposed to accept it. 

III. Are all forces resolvable into one ? 1. Pentarchy of 

forces not so resolvable (pp. 125-127). 2. Gravitation 
different from all others. 3. Spirit-force, existence 
unproven (p. 128). 
IY. Force cannot account for facts of consciousness (p. 130). 
Conclusion. — Hypothesis rejected. Force not the first 
cause. 
Section III. — Pantheism. Statement of hypothesis (p. 131). 

I. Hypothesis destroys causal relation. 

II. Hypothesis mistakes relation of God to universe. God 

immanent and transcendent (pp. 133, 134). 

III. Hypothesis falsely defines creative mind (p. 135). 

Makes it unconscious and impersonal. This shown 
impossible. Personality involves intelligence, will, 
self-consciousness ; these inseparable. 

IV. Hypothesis assumes freedom and necessity operating in 

some being (p. 139). 

V. Hypothesis makes man the culmination of the universe 

(p. 140). 



ANALYSIS. XXV 

Chapter III. Section III. — Continued. 

VI. Hypothesis makes no provision for the moral and 
religious nature (p. 141). 1. Worship. 2. Obligation. 
3. Sin (p. 142). 
Conclusion. — Hypothesis discarded (p. 143). 
These three hypotheses are a unit in their effect on the 
nature of man. 
1. Take away personality, freedom, responsibility. 2. 
Wipe out moral distinctions. 3. Take away 
stimulus to exertion. 4. Rob man of all hope. 
Section IV. — Theism. Statement of hypothesis (p. 145). 
Introductory. — 1. No attempt to demonstrate conclusion. 
2. Evidence convergent and cumulative. 

I. Restatement of causal argument (p. 146). 1. Something 

exists; so something always existed. 2. Life and 
mind not links in chain of physical antecedents and 
consequents. 

II. Argument from the order of the universe (p. 148). 

Universe arranged with mathematical relations. 
HI. Argument from the adaptation of means to ends in 
the universe. 

1. Fact of adaptation (p. 149). a. For ends in 

organism itself, b. For ends outside of organism 
(p. 151). 

2. Objections to this as proof of intelligence in the first 

cause. 

a. Objections from rudimentary and useless organs 

(p. 152). 
Answers, a. Ignorance of an organ's use no proof 
that it has none. b. Lack of adap- 
tation in some parts no argument 
against it in others, c. All animal 
life may be organized on typical 
forms (p. 153). d. Adaptation pro- 
gressive, e. Beauty an end in 
Nature (p. 155). 

b. Objections on ground of evolution (p. 15G). 
Answers, a. If evolution chance work, no intelli- 
gence back of it. b. If evolution 
orderly, necessitates an Orderer 
behind it. 



XXVI ANALYSIS. 

Chapter III. Section IF. —Continued. 

IV. Argument from the nature of man, — intelligent, free 

(p. 157). 

V. Two objections: 1. This makes God a mere contriver. 

But distinguish genius and talent (p. 158). 2. This 
anthropomorphic. But must be so (p. 160). 

VI. Argument from conscience. 

VII. Argument from sin (p. 161). 
Conclusion. — Hypothesis accepted (p. 163). 

Chapter IV. Whither am I going ? Gives the scope and value 
of life-action (pp. 165-224). 
Section L — Life (p. 166). 

1. Its possibilities. 

2. Its duties (p. 173). 

3. Its tests, a. Of what? (a) Abilities, (b) Resources. 

(c) Character. 
b. What kind? (a) General. (6) Special,— 
the life-test. 

4. Its failures (p. 178) in a. Abilities, b. Resources, c. Char- 

acter. 

5. Its successes (p. 182). a. Apparent, — achievement of 

any end sought. 
b. Real. (a) Often comes 
through seeming failure. 
(b) Is the right education 
and life. 
Section II.— Death (p. 185). 

1. Certain. Unavoidable. 

2. The end of earth. 

3. Time, place, manner, unknown. 
Section III. — Immortality (p. 189). 

I. Materialistic hypothesis. Spirit dies with the body. 

1. Hypothesis shown to be still on trial (p. 191). 

2. Hypothesis rests on two assumptions. 

a. The spirit is material, like the body (p. 192). 

(a) Granting the assumption, yet the denial of a 

future life shown unscientific. 

(b) Assumption unfounded. Distinction of spirit and 

matter as substances (p. 194). 

b. The spirit's life is dependent on its connection with 

the body (p. 195). 



ANALYSIS. XXVll 

Chapter IV. Section III. — Continued. 

(a) Body an organization. Death is disorganization. 
The spirit a unit. So force of theory of inde- 
structibility of matter against the materialist 
(p. 196). 

(6) Personal identity continues in life. So no ground 
to infer its cessation in death. 

(c) Body and spirit apparently fail together. 

1. Distinction of a general truth, and a universal, 

necessary, truth. 

2. No reason given for passage from general truth 

of experience to universal truth of existence. 

3. A universal, necessary, truth has no exceptions. 

This has many. 

4. Apparent decline of spirit-activity sufficiently 

explained on the basis that the condition of 
the mechanism prevents the manifestation 
of the spirit-activity. 

5. This the only logical inference. But the pre- 

sumption in favor of the continuance of the 
spirit-activity. 

(d) Hypothesis does not account for all the facts. 

Man a failure if no future (p. 200). 

(e) Hypothesis destroys all true ethical basis, and all 

incentive to noble action (p. 201). 
3. Materialistic hypothesis therefore discarded (p. 202). 
II. Theistic hypothesis. Continued life of the spirit beyond 
the grave (p. 203). 

1. Belief naturally suggested by facts of incompleteness of 

life, duty, social organization, responsibility. 

2. These suggestions strengthened by facts of dreams and 

swoons, the progress of the seasons, the changes in 
plant life, and plants like the anastasis (p. 204). 

3. Positive argument from the nature of man (p. 20(3). 

a. Man at the summit of the created world. Does its 
development end with him as he is now ? 

6. Relation of spirit and body (p. 207). («) Spirit 
distinct from body. (b) Spirit controls body. 
(c) These facts of consciousness. (<1) Unequal devel- 
opment of spirit and body. {(■) The power of 
spirit independent of bodily organs. 



XXV111 ANALYSIS, 

Chapter IY. Section III. — Continued. 

c. Nature of the spirit (p. 210). 

(a) Characteristics. Substance. Unit. Indestructible. 
Personal identity. Self-active. Ceaselessly 
active. 

(6) Powers (p. 212). Rapidity of action. Great 
capacity. Limited by body. a. Knowing-power, 
— memory, construction, b. Emotions. 1. Un- 
satisfied in life. 2. Love for dead continues. 
3. Yearning for the infinite. 4. Rebel against 
idea of annihilation. 

d. Moral expectation, based on conscience (p. 215). 

e. Analogy of processes of education. Always from 

concrete to abstract, sensuous to spiritual (p. 216). 
/. Only hypothesis giving life commensurate dignity 
(p. 218). 
4. Positive argument from the nature of God (p. 219). 
a. His wisdom, b. His goodness, c. His justice. 
Conclusion. — Theistic hypothesis rationally established 
(p. 221). 

1. What does it involve ? a. Judgment (p. 222). b. Con- 

tinuous development. 

2. What the duration of the future life ? a. According to 

will of Creator. b. To admit of full perfection. 
Presumption for eternity (p. 223). 

3. Will the body rise from the grave ? Here theism 

silent. 
Conclusion. — Summary of elements involved in the future 
(p. 224). 
Chapter Y. What is my relation to my situation, my origin, 
my future ? Gives the obligations of life-action 
(pp. 225-283). 
Section I. — Relation to situation (p. 226). 
I. Individual duties (p. 227). 

1. Preservation of the life, health, completeness of the 

being, — body and spirit. 

2. Culture of the being (p. 233). a. Culture of body. De- 

termined by temperament, sex, employment, b. Cul- 
ture of the spirit, (a) Knowledge of self, (b) True 
theory of education, (c) Application of theory to 
self. 



ANALYSIS. xxix 

Chapter Y. Section I. — Continued. 

3. Control of the being. Equanimity and magnanimity 

(p. 241). 

4. Conduct of the being (p. 242). a. The life-aim. 

(a) Necessary. (6) Must be in accordance with 
entire being, (c) Must be moral, (d) Must be indi- 
vidual, b. The life-action. Constant, unflagging, 
putting-forth of will in exertion. 

II. Social duties (p. 244). 

1. Unavoidable. 2. Follow analogy of individual duties. 
3. Unfolding of them on basis of this analogy (p. 246). 

III. Duties in the use of nature (p. 249). 

1. Tendency to make nature an end, or a minister to 

animalism. 

2. Nature the mechanism of intelligence, the instrument 

of thought (p. 253). 

3. Nature, therefore, to be studied; and this for the sake 

of control over it (p. 254). But this control, — 

a. Not for sordid utility. 

b. Not necessarily immediate. 

c. Co-ordination of uses of nature. 

4. Specific duties toward nature (p. 256). 

a. Abstinence from abuse and waste. 

b. Effort to perfect and develop. This may be for 

purpose of beauty. 

c. Protection and kindness to animals. 
Section II. —Relation to Origin, God (p. 260). 

1. God the Creator. So has a property-right in man. 

2. God the Father. Hence, 

a. Will guard, and seek to perfect, man (p. 261). 

b. Is the Law-giver to man. 

c. Is the Law-enforcer to man (p. 263). 

d. Is man's Instructor and Helper (p. 265). 

e. Man's happiness and perfectiou depend on harmony 

with God. 

3. Duties toward God. 
a. Characteristics. 

(a) Take precedence of all others. Yet duties not really 

conflietive. 

(b) All duty really owed and performed to God. 

(c) Germ-thought, — supreme devotion. 



XXX ANALYSIS. 

Chapter V. Section II. — Continued. 
b. Divisions (p. 268). 

(a) Supreme devotion of the knowing-power. 

1. God the highest knowledge. 

a. Can God be known? (p. 269). 

b. Trustworthiness of thought-processes in study of 

God. 

c. Test principle of systematic knowledge (p. 272). 

2. Duty to study God. 

(b) Supreme devotion of the power of emotion (p. 273). 

Exercise of emotions toward God as infinite 
perfection, righteousness, goodness. 

(c) Supreme devotion of the will-power (p. 274). 

1. Obedience. 

2. Worship. Shown especially in, a. Prayer, b. Ob- 

servance of the Sabbath (p. 277). 
Section III. — Relation to the future (p. 278). 

1. Elements in character-building, a. Environment, b. God. 

c. Self. 

2. Operation of laws of, a. Habit, b. Crystallization of 

character. 

3. Through these laws, the present determines the future, 

in its (p. 281) a. Moral tone. b. Measure of growth. 
Conclusion. — Summary of relations and obligations (p. 283). 

PART II. -THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS 
(pp. 284-330). 

Chapter I. Fundamental requisites (pp. 284-291). 

I. A true scheme of reconstruction for the spirit-activity; 

providing, — 

1. A perfect model. 

2. A supreme motive. 

3. Liberty; including, a. Freedom, b. Power. 

4. Help. 

II. The true supreme purpose (p. 287). 

1. Necessity of a supreme purpose shown. 
a. Save time and strength, b. Concentrate effort, c. Cor- 
relate effort, d. Quicken energy, e. Prevent waste 
of material. /. Increase measure and value of 
achievement. 



ANALYSIS. xxxi 

Chapter I. — Continued. 

2. Tests of the true supreme purpose (p. 289). 

a. Give employment to entire being. 

b. Give development of entire being. 

c. Give increasing employment commensurate with devel- 

opment. 

d. Attain supreme end of being, (a) Rational complete- 

ness of being, (b) Working out part allotted in the 
Divine scheme of activity. 
Chapter II. Proposed schemes (pp. 292-317). 
Section I. — Pleasure. 

I. Forms. 1. Animal. 2. ^Esthetic. 3. Ethical. 

II. Laws. 1. Happiness the reflex of unimpeded energy. 

2. Pleasure right only as recreation. 

III. Practical working. 1. Pleasure sought for itself never 

secured. 2. Pleasure-providers enemies of humanity. 
Section II.— Wealth (p. 295). 

I. Forms. 1. Material. 2. Mental. 

II. Value, and duty of obtaining. 

III. Law. Productive energy and abstinence. 

IY. Practical working. 1. Simply the mechanism of 
achievement. 2. Provides no method for its own use. 
Section III. — Fame (p. 298). 

I. Forms. 1. Transient. 2. Permanent. 

II. Value. 

III. Law. Special hard work and self-denial for others in 

matters of common interest. 

IV. Practical working. 1. Very uncertain. 2. Great fame 

possible only to the few. 3. Conscious effort for 
fame results disastrously in character-building. 4. 
When of true worth, fame comes in the unselfish 
performance of duty. 
Section IF. — Power (p. 302). 

I. Forms. 1. Physical, a. Human, b. Mechanical. 2. In- 

tellectual. 3. Emotional. 4. Volitional. 5. All cul- 
minating in moral power (p. 305). 

II. Law. Study, effort, discipline, sacrifice (p. 308). 

III. Value (p. 309). 

IV. Practical working. 1. All forms of power to be secured. 

2. Power a means to achievement. 3. Correlation of 
effort impossible for the individual. 4. Mistakes 



XXXll ANALYSIS. 

Chapter II. Section IV. — Continued. 

disastrous. 5. Growth of power is unconscious. 6. 
Deliberate effort to secure it results disastrously in 
character-building (p. 312). 
Summary of these four schemes (p. 313). 

1. Each has its place in full human character and life. 

But,— 

2. Conscious effort for any one as supreme prevents attain- 

ment of the others. 

3. No provision in them for reconstruction of spirit-activity. 

4. Give partial employment to being. (Save power.) 

Hence, — 

5. Give partial development of being. 

6. Are uncertain of attainment. 

7. Their possession but temporary. 

Section V. — Conscious effort for completeness of being 
(p. 316). 

I. Historical efforts all failures. 

II. Necessary elements out of man's power. 

III. Matthew Arnold's scheme. Departure from iniquity. 

1. This the thing man, unaided, cannot do. 2. This 
but a negative element. 
Conclusion. — Schemes all unavailing (p. 317). 
Chapter III. The problem solved (pp. 318-330). 

I. Preliminary considerations. 

1. Solution must come from outside man. 

2. No help in Nature, history, the extra-human universe. 

3. God the only source of help. 

a. Objection. God will not help man. Unproven. 

b. Objection. God cannot reveal any aid to man. 

Unphilosophical. 

c. God must have a purpose in the universe. 

d. This must include man. 

e. Man is rational. So must know what he is to do. 

II. Christianity claims to be this Divinely originated and 

revealed scheme. 
1. Provides a scheme of reconstruction (p. 321). 

a. Perfect model of character. Jesus of Nazareth. 

b. Supreme motive. Grateful love (p. 322). 

c. Liberty, (a) Freedom, {b) Power. Regeneration by 

Holy Spirit (p. 323). 

d. Help. Companionship of Divine Being (p. 324). 



ANALYSIS. xxxiii 

Chapter III. — Continued. 

2. Christianity provides the true supreme purpose. 

a. Elements in the purpose (p. 326). 

(a) Absolute redemption of self and race from sin. 

(b) Building of perfect character. 

(c) Realization of the kingdom of Christ. 

b. Principles in achieving the purpose (p. 328). 
(a) Faith in Christ. 

(6) Direction of life by Christ, 
(c) Constant communion with Christ. 
(eZ) Regulation of life by principle of self-sacrifice. 
Conclusion. — 1. Christianity the solution of the problem 
(p. 329). 
2. Effect of it in life. 



THE GIST OF IT. 



INTRODUCTION. 

NATURE AND DIVISIONS OF THE INQUIRY. 

In planning for any undertaking in life, the wise 
man is careful to consider all the elements and bear- 
ings of the proposed effort, giving every fact and 
contingency proper recognition and interpretation : 
otherwise, disaster may result, and the sufferer be 
justly blamed as foolishly or wickedly heedless. The 
merchant who buys on credit large bills of goods in 
hope of profitable sale, but neglects to note the indi- 
cations of a lessening demand for the articles he 
purchases, is deemed criminally unobservant, and 
receives no sympathy in his failure. The young 
man who, attracted by the eloquence and effective- 
ness of a great advocate, or fascinated by the spell 
of his wide popularity, determines to study law, but 
forgets the long years of hard study and severe self- 
denial through which his hero has climbed to his 
position, or fails to perceive in himself special fitness 
for scientific or mechanical pursuits, may get what 
comfort he can, in after years of disappointment, 

l 



2 THE GIST OF IT. 

from the consciousness that his wreck is due to his 
own thoughtlessness: no other consolation will be 
given him. 

Further illustration would be needless multiplica- 
tion of sentences. Universal experience has ren- 
dered almost self-evident the proposition that in 
any department of human activity, every essential 
fact and possibility must be noted and properly con- 
sidered, if the best success is to be achieved. The 
instances of wasted powers, defeated ambitions, 
ruined lives, resulting from inattention to this prin- 
ciple, are painful in both their suffering and their 
number. 

" Every essential fact and possibility," the proposi- 
tion reads. Here is an all-important distinction. 
The possession of good health, fair intelligence, am- 
bition, energy, are facts giving a sound basis for the 
determination to do something in the world. Just 
what that something shall be, however, exactly what 
particular phase of activity shall claim one's efforts, 
cannot be settled by these facts. They are of equal 
necessity and fitness in many different lines of work, 
and the choice of a sphere of action must be made in 
view of other considerations. The "bent," the adap- 
tability, of the individual make-up, is the essential 
element in determining which of various offeri ng 
occupations shall be chosen. 

The principle has a broader sweep than this. The 
settlement of the question whether one will be a 
farmer, a carpenter, a teacher, or a machinist, though 
of vital importance, does not solve all the prob- 
lems of life. Back of and above all such inquiries, 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

including them all in its far-reaching comprehension, 
is another and greater problem, presented for solution 
to every human being : Given, life, with its varied 
powers, opportunities, and possibilities. What are 
the essential facts involved in it, and what is their 
meaning? What is the mechanism, the material, 
the aim, the possibility, of my life-achievement ? To 
the young man or woman, standing with beating 
heart and fluttering hope upon the threshold of 
opening life, the right answer to the inquiry is of 
transcendent importance. For such this attempt 
at its solution is undertaken. 

Omitting, as irrelevant to the main purpose of our 
investigation, all questions of individual peculiarity 
and fitness, and considering the particulars of uni- 
versal situations and necessities, all the essential 
facts involved are found to group themselves under 
the answers to five queries : — 

First, What am I? What is the nature of this 
complex of powers and forces which I call myself? 
The answer to this gives the mechanism of man's 
activity. 

Second, Where am I? What is my position, in 
space and in time? Can I localize myself in the 
scheme of Nature, or in the unfolding of race-life ? 
If so, where is my situation ? In the answers to these 
questions are found the sphere and material of human 
action. 

Tlurd, Whence am I ? Have I an origin, an Origi- 
nator ? If so, what or Who ? The moral complexion 
of life-activity is brought out in these interrogations. 



4 THE GIST OF IT. 

Fourth, Whither am I going ? I live in the present 
only. What facts are necessarily involved in the 
future, which is realized only as it becomes the 
present ? Herein the scope and value of human 
exertion are involved. 

Fifth, What is my relation to my situation, my 
origin, my future ? Out of this investigation arise 
the obligations, if any, of life-activity. 

The discussion of these questions, their answers 
and interpretation, will form the subjects of the fol- 
lowing chapters. 



PART I. 
THE FACTS OF LIFE. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHAT AM I? 



Volumes of learned treatise and discussion, and 
numbers of beautiful poetic gems, have been written 
in the unfolding and praise of the marvellous nature 
of man. Its great complexity, delicate adjustments, 
perfect fitness for many and various forms of work, 
powerful capacities for exertion and endurance, ren- 
der the body — the physical make-up — a never-fail- 
ing source of study and admiration. When, however, 
we pass within the physical organism, tangible to our 
senses, and contemplate the mighty thought-power, 
which brings all earth and heaven measurably within 
the grasp, and under the sway, of man ; the power of 
feeling, with its constant play of conflicting emotions, 
balancing man continually between hope and fear, 
rapture and despair ; the will-power, which embodies 
the personality of the individual, is the dictator and 
sovereign of action, and the type of all original and 
originating power; or the combination of powers 
whereby the treasures of ethics and aesthetics are 

5 



6 THE GIST OF IT. 

made available; — the intricacy, the grandeur, the 
dignity, of man become apparent, and we do not 
wonder that poet and philosopher alike have made 
him the object of investigation and the theme of song. 
Yet in this seeming labyrinth, there is a real simpli- 
city : for the nature of man is a unit, an organic 
whole ; and hence all its parts are elements in one 
plan, each with its specific place and function. 

The governing element of this organized existence 
is a spirit, an intelligence, dwelling in, and operating 
through, the body, — the two forming the complete 
being. The duality of created existence, though 
never more fiercely contested than now, is still the 
unshaken basis of sound philosophy. Scientific dis- 
covery has made clearer the outlines of the chasm 
between spirit and matter, has revealed more of the 
fathomless depths of the dividing abyss ; but no con- 
nection has yet been found or made which will, in 
any way, show the identity of the two. Man par- 
takes of both in his organization : wherefore, will 
later appear ; how, let us now consider. 

I. 

As the spirit is first in importance, — is the organ- 
izing and ruling member of the combination, — ra- 
tional and successful inquiry must begin with its 
consideration. Here a few propositions must be es- 
tablished, as prior and fundamental to the investiga- 
tion. Consciousness is that power of the spirit by 
which it knows itself, and its own acts and states. 

First, The testimony of consciousness must never be 
called in question. This is of vital importance. It 



THE FACTS OF LIFE^ 7 

may, at times, be matter of debate whether one reads 
aright the record of his own consciousness; but if, 
looking with careful, honest, scrutiny into his own 
inner life, — his thoughts, feelings, purposes, all the 
soul- and heart-life, — the individual finds its witness 
clearly of a certain character, he must accept its testi- 
mony. To do otherwise is to introduce at the basis 
an error subversive of all knowledge. Consciousness 
is the highest court of appeal. If it be untrustworthy, 
nothing is certain. The force of this will be more 
evident from the following statements. For, — 

1. In the investigation of the spirit-life, conscious- 
ness is the instrument of observation. It is only by 
means of consciousness that any knowledge of the 
inner life is possible. Yet, — 

2. Consciousness is the object of observation. In 
it are presented all the facts of the inner life, — all 
facts of thought, of feeling, of intention. It is the 
record of them all, the mirror in which they are re- 
flected. It is, therefore, obvious that any assertion 
of the fallibility of consciousness must be destructive 
of all knowledge, and is to be carefully avoided. 

Second, Consciousness gives infallible witness to the 
self -activity, freedom, and unity, of the spirit. These 
ideas need a word of explanation. 

The spirit of man is essentially self-active. All 
movements in material Nature are produced by force 
external to — i.e. not inherent in — the moving ob- 
ject. The stone is thrown, but the power that sends 
it whirling through the air is not found in the stone 
itself. The locomotive goes speeding over the rails; 
but the hand of man produced the combination of 



8 THE GIST OF IT. 

physical elements and forces of which it is the em- 
bodiment, and the hand of man lets loose those forces 
to exert, under their own laws, but in the new con- 
ditions, their energy. The tree, year by year, lifts 
its lofty head above the soil, and spreads its protect- 
ing branches over the face of Mother Earth ; but 
back of and in all its material components, working 
unseen its mighty results, is the mysterious influence 
of life, which governs and moulds all parts of the 
tree in harmonious and effective unison. Unlike the 
stone, the locomotive, or the tree, the spirit of man, 
once in existence, is dependent on no external agency 
for its activity, but of itself continually exerts power, 
and, by virtue of its own nature, is an originating 
source of power. 

Essential freedom, spontaneity, is likewise a char- 
acteristic of the spirit of man. All material Nature 
is governed by exact and necessary laws. When the 
conditions are fulfilled, the effect is necessarily pro- 
duced, and may be certainly predicted. The chemist 
in his laboratory puts together two parts of hydrogen 
and one of oxygen, determining the proportion by 
known and fixed ratios, passes an electric spark 
through them, and immediately and of necessity the 
two elements unite, forming water. In the spirit of 
man, all this is changed. In no case can it be fore- 
told, of different individuals or of the same individ- 
ual, that, under like recurring circumstances, the 
action will be certainly the same, save only where 
the individual has bound and schooled himself into 
obedience to some dominant principle ; and in such 
instances prediction is safe only within narrow limits. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 9 

The unity of the spirit in all its activity is an idea 
which it is necessary to grasp with perfect clearness. 
When we speak of the parts of a tree, — the trunk, 
the branches, the leaves, the bark, — we mean things 
constituting one whole, but actually, in space, sepa- 
rable from each other. In like manner, when we con- 
sider the elements of true government, — intelligent 
power, ordered by law, controlling action, — we refer 
to ideas constituting one whole, but actually, in 
thought, separable from each other. When, how- 
ever, we turn to the spirit, and examine its activity, 
we find no such combining of separable members. 
The man speaks of thinking, feeling, willing ; but he 
does not mean that one part of the spirit thinks, 
another feels, and a third wills. He means that these 
are but modes of spirit-action ; and when he says, " I 
feel," " I will," he means that the whole spirit acts 
in such specific ways, and its unity is never broken. 
For convenience of language, we shall speak of these 
modes of spirit-action as powers. 

Turning to the investigation of spirit-activity with 
these propositions clearly in mind, three great modes 
of action, or powers, are at once apparent: first, a 
power of knowing; second, a power of feeling, or 
emotion ; third, a power of will, or volition. Let us 
study these in order, and let the reader watch, step 
by step, his own mental action. 

I. As will later appear, the universe of existence 
in which man is placed is an accordant thought- 
system. It is essential, therefore, that man should be 
able to acquire knowledge of existence, part by part; 
to keep each successive acquirement of information ; 



10 THE GIST OF IT. 

to work out the true relations between these various 
bits of knowledge which he has gained ; and to com- 
bine them, when thus understood, into systems form- 
ing consistent correlatives to parts of the universal 
system of existence. The power of knowing in the 
spirit of man is exactly adapted to this situation ; 
for in its activity we find four distinct and successive 
stages, correspondent to the needs of the case. 

1. The first step is that of simple knowledge, — 
the process by which information is gathered from 
the universe. This truth comes, not in groups or 
arranged wholes, but in specific, individual, bits : e.g., 
this power gives knowledge of an apple not as an 
apple, but as something hard, round, colored, having 
separable parts, as stem, blossom, core, seeds; and 
by a later process, these bits of truth are named, 
and combined into the whole called " apple." But 
knowledge comes to us of three kinds : — 

a. Such bits of truth as regarding the apple are of 
an outside world, external to the spirit. They are 
obtained through the physical senses. This process 
is, therefore, known as external- or sense-perception ; 
and in it a knowledge of matter and its properties is 
secured. 

b. While acquiring the facts above stated regard- 
ing the apple, the observer gains other truths, of a 
very different kind. He becomes aware of an in- 
telligence within himself, an "I," which is doing 
the observing, and can trace all its movements in the 
acquirement of the facts. This process is termed 
internal perception, or consciousness ; and it gives 
knowledge of the spirit and its activities. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 11 

c. Along with these two sets of truths, a third 
series of facts is found, accompanying and condition- 
ing all knowledges from external and internal percep- 
tion. The apple is perceived as a real thing ; as in 
a place, before the observer ; as seen now ; as the 
product of a tree, the effect of a process of growth : 
so the spirit is perceived as a real existence ; as pres- 
ent now ; its activities, like the properties of the 
apple, are actualities: therefore, out of both spheres 
come the facts of being, space, time, and causation. 
These facts are always present in all knowledge, and 
hence the process is called concomitant perception : 
they are perceived in the thing itself, and therefore 
the process is termed intuition. By careful examina- 
tion, the products of this process, or the intuitions, are 
seen to group themselves naturally in three classes. 

1. Intuitions of being, which are of being as exist- 
ing ; of being as spirit, with its activities ; of being 
as matter, with its properties : e.g., in the statement 
" My body is matter " are involved the ideas of some- 
thing as actually existing ; of some existence with 
powers of self-activity, personality, possession, and 
so on, expressed by the " my ; " of another existence 
with powers of hardness, weight, and such properties, 
expressed in general in the term " matter," and ex- 
pressed as in a specially organized form in " body." 

2. Intuitions of the limitations of being, which are 
space and time, giving rise to all fundamental ideas 
of extension, number, identity, differences, and re- 
semblances ; as the body is seen to occupy space, to 
be present now, to be one body, to be distinct from 
other bodies and yet like them in many particulars, 



12 THE GIST OF IT. 

and to be the same body possessed through a period 
of time. 3. Intuitions of the properties of being, 
which are power, whence come the ideas of substance 
and quality, cause and effect ; and rational idea, or 
the standards of reason, — the pleasurable, the useful, 
the perfect, the true, the right. The first operates 
when, in the case cited, the matter of the body is 
recognized as a substance possessed of certain prop- 
erties, like weight, color, chemical power, and a cause 
is sought for its existence and continuance, as matter, 
or as in the form of the body. By the last, the 
standards of reason, all knowledges are compared 
and tested. Thus, the body may be considered as a 
means of pleasure, a useful mechanism, a complete 
organization ; or, the knowledge concerning the body 
may be considered in relation to its correctness ; or, 
the use made of the body by the spirit may be viewed 
as right or wrong. In all such cases, it is found that 
the knowledges are compared with some one of these 
standards of reason. 

These three processes give only simple knowl- 
edges, and in their normal exercise their action is 
infallibly correct. They furnish the material for all 
the work of the higher powers. Any question of 
their trustworthiness is thus fatal to certainty in the 
higher departments of activity. 

2. These knowledges are acquired slowly and in 
detail. If they passed at once from the mind when 
the attention was removed from them, no progress in 
the acquirement of truth could be made. We should 
be always perceiving and knowing only that which 
was immediately and vividly present to the observer. 



TIIE FACTS OF LIFE. 13 

The conservative power, or memory, meets this diffi- 
culty. It has various successive functions. 

a. In some way not understood, the knowledges 
acquired are put away and held in the mind out of 
consciousness. It would be bewildering and over- 
whelming if all a man's knowledge were constantly 
before his mind, so all these facts are held out of 
consciousness. This is known as the power of re- 
tention. 

b. The knowledges thus held may come back into 
the mind spontaneously ; or, when occasion renders 
their use necessary, the individual may, by an act of 
will, recall them. In both cases the power of repro- 
duction, working according to the laws of association, 
brings back into consciousness the facts previously 
obtained. 

c. The power of representation now comes into 
action, and vividly portrays in consciousness the past 
knowledges. This may be either spontaneous, as in 
fantasy, of which delirium, dreams, and somnam- 
bulism, are forms ; or voluntas, produced by act of 
will, in imagination. This latter form may be so 
combined with the higher powers as to produce new 
images, modifying old knowledges, though operating 
by strict laws of association. 

d. Lastly, the power of recognition is brought into 
operation ; and through it the observer knows clearly 
that the image is present to the mind, that the image 
represents a past knowledge, and that the past 
knowledge was his own. In these ways acquired 
facts are held and presented when needed for the use 
of higher powers ;. and they may be called up singly, 



14 THE GIST OF IT. 

successively, or in groups, according as their own 
relations and the observer's intention shall deter- 
mine. 

3. Suppose, now, the observer to have secured 
many facts of different kinds, and to hold them thus 
at instant command. His next step must be the dis- 
covery of the relations existing among these facts, 
their arrangement according to their relations, and 
the working out of the truth involved in those rela- 
tions. This task is performed by the power of com- 
parison, in several connected stages. 

a. When all the perceivable knowledges of some 
object, as the apple above cited, have been gathered 
up, but are in the mind as separate bits of informa- 
tion, the observer may grasp these clearly as the 
properties of a single object. Or, he may have the 
properties of many objects of the same kind before 
him, and, choosing out those which are common to 
all the objects, grasp them as one idea, applicable to 
each of the objects. Naming these bundles of prop- 
erties, he would have, in the first instance, an apple ; 
in the second, apple, a term which he could affirm of 
any object of the class. This is the work of the 
power of conception. 

b. The objects in the world, and the classes into 
which those objects naturally fall or are combined by 
man, sustain many relations to each other. By the 
power of judgment, the observer takes any two such 
objects, as represented by the names he has given 
them, compares them with each other, finds exactly 
what relation they sustain to each other, and affirms 
that relation of them. Thus, on the basis of the 



TIIE FACTS OF LIFE. 15 

relation of genus and species, the individual might 
affirm, the apple is a fruit; or, he might also assert, 
the apple is not an animal. In both cases the two 
ideas are compared on the basis of the relation, and 
the result of the comparison expressed in the affir- 
mation. 

c. In many cases, — probably in much the greater 
number in actual life-work, — the subject of compari- 
son is not simply two of these complex ideas, but three. 
In such instances the power of reasoning takes one 
of the ideas for a standard, compares the other two 
each with this one, and then affirms their agreement 
or disagreement according as they both do or do not 
agree with the standard. Thus, to vary the illustra- 
tion, a salesman is examining two pieces of silk. By 
long experience he has acquired an exact knowledge 
of good silk, and this knowledge forms his standard 
of comparison. One piece agrees with the standard, 
the other does not. Hence he affirms that the two 
pieces are not the same quality or make of goods. 1 

1 The operation of this power of comparison is the main field of 
logic. The product of the power of conception is the concept: when 
given a name, it is called the term. If the concept express simply 
the properties of one object, it is called the concept term: if it ex- 
press the properties of many objects, constituting a class, it is the 
class term. The power of judgment compares together these terms, 
and expresses that comparison in the proposition. The comparison 
may be of two concept terms, two class terms, or a concept term 
and a 'lass term. The power of reasoning makes the comparison of 
three terms: the one which is the standard of comparison is called 
the middle term; of tie- others, the one first compared is named the 
major term; the last is the minor term. The major term is first 
compared with the middle term in a proposition called the major 
premise; then the minor term is compared with the middle term in 
a second proposition, called the minor premise; finally, the resulting 
relation of the major and minor terms to each other is expressed in 



16 THE GIST OF IT. 

4. We come now to the fourth and last step in the 
operation of the power of knowing. In process of 
time many simple knowledges have been acquired ; 
they have been held in the memory, and brought up 
again for use ; their relations have been carefully 
worked out, through the successive processes of con- 
ception, judgment, and reasoning. One thing further 
is necessary to complete the work of the power of 
knowing. Truth exists in system, and must, there- 
fore, be known in system ; hence we come now to 
the system-making, or constructive, power. 

The fact that man possesses such a power, or mode 
of spirit-activit}% is easily established by a little 
observation. Every mechanical contrivance, from a 
pocket-knife to a locomotive, a watch or a type- 
setting machine, is a system, in which certain physi- 
cal elements and forces are brought into combination 
under one governing principle for the accomplish- 
ment of a definite practical end. Likewise every 
thought -product, Shakspeare's " Hamlet," Haw- 
thorne's " Scarlet Letter," or the science of chemis- 
try or astronomy, is a system, an organized unity, 
wherein facts and truths are grouped about one 
dominant idea, in order to perfectly represent some 
actual or conceived reality. The statue, the paint- 
ing, the oratorio, are equally organic units, or sys- 
tems, moulding the marble, combining the colors, 
grouping the tones, all in relation to some central 

a third proposition, called the conclusion. The completed product — 
major promise, minor premise, conclusion, — is called the syllogism. 
The varying combinations of these give rise to the forms of reason- 
ing, —inductive, deductive, and analogical; each having its own uses, 
laws, and dangers. (See Practical Logic, D. S. Gregory, D.D.) 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 17 

idea of perfection, or beauty, which the entire com- 
bination is to embody and present. This process is 
the culmination of the work of the power of know- 
ing. All preceding processes are preparatory to this; 
and when the knowledges are thus grasped in system, 
the function of the power of knowing is fully exer^ 
cised. The operation of this power is also thor- 
oughly rational, and is carried on in accordance with 
specific laws. In all the work of the various forms, 
there is a definite, rational, purpose and plan, which 
is formed and executed in a manner perfectly obedi- 
ent to the special laws of this activity. Of this 
power, there are three forms : — 

a. The power of scientific construction, whose 
function is to group knowledges in systems cor- 
respondent to reality. Its aim is purely knowledge 
of truth, in the sense of exact science ; and in its 
operation it is governed by the law of the true, which 
rests back upon the intuition of the true. In this 
process the thinker must aim to get an exact knowl- 
edge of all the facts and truths in any sphere of 
truth, and combine them in a system or systems 
precisely correspondent to those existing in reality. 
Hence arise all our systems of science. 

b. The function of the power of artistic construc- 
tion is to group knowledges into sj'stems according 
to the law of the beautiful, which has for its basis 
the intuition of the perfect, and is that all the knowl- 
edges musl be considered from the point of view of 
the beautiful, and so grouped as to represent or 
reveal sonic organic whole of rational perfection. 
Its aim is thus not the exact correspondence to 



18 THE GIST OF IT. 

truth, as in scientific construction, but the repre- 
sentation of some idea of beauty, or perfection. The 
statue and the oratorio illustrate this. This and the 
next process give full exercise to the imagination. 

c. The power of practical construction has for its 
function the grouping of knowledges into systems 
according to the law of the good. This law, which 
bases on the intuition of the useful, is that the 
knowledges be viewed as useful, and be grouped in 
systems embodying some practical idea. Its aim is 
thus utility, — to so organize knowledges as to 
accomplish some beneficial end. It is by this pro- 
cess that the steam-engine, the railroad, the tele- 
phone, and all useful contrivances, are invented, the 
knowledges being so grouped as to represent some 
practical idea. 

II. The result of the work of the power of know- 
ing is to give the individual knowledge. If, how- 
ever, this were his only mode, or power, of spirit- 
activity, he would be simply a knowing-machine ; 
and though he might fill his mind with truth in 
exact, beautiful, or beneficial, systems, they would 
never be realized, nor would he put forth any effort 
in any way. At this point the second great power 
of spirit-action takes up the work. This is the 
power of feeling, or emotion. Careful thought is 
necessary here ; for not only are the nature and action 
of this power much misunderstood in ordinary think- 
ing, but also one of the great modern schools of 
philosophy bases its whole s} T stem upon a false con- 
ception of this power. 

It is true that without emotion man would be an 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 19 

inactive thing ; but yet the claim that feeling lies at 
the foundation of all his knowledge and action 
-will be seen, by a little inquiry, to be an entirely 
erroneous assumption. 

Note first, therefore, the elements which are com- 
bined in the operation of this power. 1 The first 
thing observed is that man's nature is full of crav- 
ings, of needs, which reach out into the world for 
some satisfaction, something which they can appro- 
priate, or upon which they can spend themselves. 
These are essentially inherent in man's nature, and 
are known as the appetencies. Yet, secondly, these 
appetencies "reach out into the world for some sat- 
isfaction," some good. How does the knowledge of 
that good come to the spirit ? Must it not be through 
the power of knowing? A little close scrutiny will 
show that the appetencies come into full operation 
only upon the presentation of some satisfaction, and 
this presentation can only be through the knowing- 
power. The idiot and the savage alike illustrate 
and confirm the statement, that without knowledge, 
there is no feeling ; that if knowledge be wholly taken 
away, the individual becomes a mere machine, with 
less of freedom and volition than the brute creation. 
When, now, through the power of knowing, the spirit 
perceives sonic good which is adapted to some of its 
n seds, an appreciation of that relation is shown in a, 
rousing of the spirit. Then, at last, this general 
mil;;, or excitement, of the spirit is focalized upon, 
and manifested through, thai part of the spiritual 
or physical mechanism which is the special organ 
1 M> < Josh : Emotions, pp. 1-4. 



20 THE GIST OF IT. 

of the need which the good presented is fitted to 
satisfy. 

A single illustration will show this. Man's body 
must have frequent supplies of food if it is to be 
preserved in vigor. He has a capacity for recogniz- 
ing this fact, and a desire to give the body what it 
needs. When, now, the supply of food in the body 
is exhausted, a sensation goes up the nerves of the 
body to the brain. The attention of the spirit is 
arrested. The sensation is not clearly defined. The 
spirit, tracing back along the lines of the sensation, 
ascertains its cause, — the exhausted condition of 
the body, — and then the desire for food is called 
forth. This desire is the real feeling, the emotion. 

These being the elements of emotion, the conclu- 
sion is unquestionable that this power of emotion is 
second in order of exercise, and is dependent upon 
the prior action of the knowing-power for its own 
activity. It cannot, therefore, be itself the funda- 
mental element of knowledge. 

There are two general ways in which this power is 
exercised. 

1. The spirit dwells in a material body, which, as 
will be shown later, is a part of the physical world, 
and subject to all its laws. Hence arise, through this 
physical organism, one class of feelings, which may 
be termed the animal feelings. The simplest form 
of these animal feelings is that of sensations ; i.e., a 
feeling which arises as a necessary accompaniment 
of the activity of the physical organism. It is either 
pleasurable or painful, — the former, if the activity 
is normal and uninterrupted ; the latter, if the 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 21 

activity is unnatural or impeded : and it may be 
diffused over the entire body, as the warmth aroused 
in running ; or be confined to some organ, as when 
the dyspeptic's stomach rebels ; or to some one of 
the special senses, as hearing or sight, which have 
connected with them special feelings. Even in 
this lowest form, it is the spirit, the " I," that 
feels. 

Above this form is that of the instinctive feelings. 
In common with the animals, man has many pure 
instincts, though their number in him is limited by 
the wider sphere of intelligence. These instincts 
are inwrought into the organism itself, and on occa- 
sion they come into action without any conscious 
control. They include the desires to preserve and 
develop the being, and provide for the future, both 
of one's self and one's fellows : e.g., closing the eyes, 
or dodging, when some danger is near, without 
special thought of what one is doing ; the disposition 
to exert the powers of the body in running and play, 
and other such movements, — all are the outgrowth 
of instincts. When these instincts operate, certain 
feelings arise, which always accompany them ; and 
these are the instinctive feelings. 

The highest and most important form of these 
animal feelings is that known as the appetites. 
These have for their object the preservation and 
upbuilding of the body. In the case of the indi- 
vidual the work is accomplished through the desires 
for rest and sleep, health and reereat ion, food, drink, 
and air; while the work is achieved for the race 
through such desires as the attraction of the sexes, 



22 THE GIST OF IT. 

the care of the young, and humanity toward the 
unfortunate and wretched. 

2. But forms of good may be presented to the 
spirit, which deal not at all, or only indirectly, with 
the physical make-up ; and, when so presented, feel- 
ings arise which may be called the rational senti- 
ments. These have their occasion in the presentation 
of some personal or impersonal good, or object, and 
are of two kinds, — affections, or a giving-out of the 
powers of the spirit toward some object ; and desires, 
or a craving of the spirit for the possession and use 
of some object. 

In the case of the personal sentiments, the affec- 
tions may go out toward one's self, toward others, 
or toward God (or a Supreme Power), because per- 
ceived to be capable of enjoyment, or benevolent, 
excellent, or righteous ; and here are manifested all 
the various forms of self-love and selfishness, self- 
respect and egotism, gratitude and approbation, com- 
placency, esteem, and reverence, or the reverse, 
reaching out from one's own nature toward the 
family, the country, the world, and then toward that 
which is above and beyond the world — toward God. 
The personal desires regard only the individual and 
his fellows : they are the cravings for happiness, as 
shown in the desires to provide for the health, con- 
tinuance, and pleasure of the spirit ; for perfection, 
seen in the desires to develop the powers of the 
spirit of one's self and of others, to attain ideal 
excellence of manhood and womanhood, and to plan 
for the economizing of the energies and their direc- 
tion toward the working out of some life purpose ; 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 23 

and the cravings for virtue, or Tightness, which are 
shown in the recognition of personal responsibility 
and obligation, and in the disposition to teach others, 
by precept and law, their duty, and bind them to its 
execution by reward and punishment. 

When the good is presented in the form of some 
impersonal object, the impersonal sentiments are 
awakened. These impersonal objects may embody 
some form of scientific truth, when the love of truth, 
and desire to possess it, are evoked ; or some phase 
of artistic or beautiful idea, when the love of the 
beautiful, the craving for it, all the aasthetic emo- 
tions, are aroused ; or some variety of practical or 
beneficial truth may be presented, when various feel- 
ings are excited, as the form of the truth is that 
of happiness, advantage, rightness, or infinite good- 
ness and rectitude. In contemplating some intricate 
machinery, as the exact adaptation and adjustment 
of all the parts is seen, the spirit feels a satisfaction 
in that exactness ; and profound mathematicians find 
an enjoyment in the study of the most abstruse 
formulae. The statue, the rose, the mountain view, 
arouse deep and varied emotions; while in the con- 
sideration of actions and situations as wise, right, 
happy, or the opposite, appropriate feelings spring 
into operation. 

Such is the working of the second power, emotion : 
it always presupposes some action of the knowing- 
power, and consists in a rousing, or excitement, of 
the spirit, manifested in some affection or desire. 
Tims, by tin- successive action of these two powers, 
of knowing and of emotion, tiie spirit acquires 



24 THE GIST OF IT. 

knowledge of things fitted to satisfy its needs, and 
is roused by this knowledge toward action. Here 
comes in the operation of the third great power, the 
will. 

III. This is the power of action, or endeavor. The 
knowing-power presents to the spirit some form of 
good as an end of action: the emotions are awak- 
ened to an appreciation of the good, and, reaching 
out toward it for satisfaction, they act as the springs 
of action, and incite the will to execution. The will- 
power may, therefore, be defined as " that power of 
the human spirit by which it freely exerts itself for 
the attainment of some good presented as an end 
of action by the intellect (or knowing-power), and 
made a spring of action by the emotions." In the 
operation of the will, three successive steps are to be 
considered: — 

1. The first of these is the power of choice. One 
or more objects or ends of action are presented to 
the spirit, and are held for a time under considera- 
tion. It may be but one end that is offered; and 
then all the reasons for moving to secure it must be 
duly weighed, and over against them put all the 
reasons for refraining from the exertion. If a num- 
ber of objects are presented, the process is by so 
much made more intricate ; and all the conflicting 
reasons for and against this or that action, or any at 
all, are deliberated upon. When the objects have 
thus been held for a time in examination, the spirit 
freely chooses out one form of action from the 
others, prefers it to the others. If the consideration 
is very slight and superficial, the choice may be 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 25 

known as spontaneous choice. This is the case in 
so-called thoughtless, or impulsive, actions, where 
"I didn't think " does not mean that the spirit acted 
without choice, but that the choice was careless or 
hasty. When, however, the consideration is appro- 
priately long and careful, the choice may be termed 
rational preference. In both cases it is noticeable 
that the spirit is free, and knows itself to be free, in 
its action ; but while, in spontaneous choice, the 
individual may suffer himself to be carried away by 
a rush of feeling, in rational preference the selection 
of some one of the different ends of action proposed 
is because of reasons preponderating in favor of that 
action. For example, a drunken bully insults two 
men on a crowded street in a large city ; both men 
feel the natural impulse to knock the rascal down ; 
one man yields to the impulse, and replies to the 
insult with a blow ; the other, considering the char- 
acter and condition of the ruffian, and that to engage 
in a quarrel with him will make a public disturbance, 
and result in arrest and a fine for himself as well as 
the bully, quietly turns aside, and passes on. Both 
men were free in their action ; but while the latter 
was rational in choosing his course, on the basis of 
sound reasons, the oilier suffered his impulses to lead 
him, and so made a foolish and unreasonable choice. 
2. When the choice has been made, the spirit 
next, by the power of volition, forms a purpose to 
Becure the end which lias been chosen. This purpose 
may be of some chosen end which is immediately 
attainable; or it may be for the achieving some 
result far in the future ; or, in its highest form, it 



26 THE GIST OF IT. 

may embrace the entire life, becoming then the grand 
life-purpose, ill the execution of which all the ener- 
gies and powers of the being find employment. 

A simple illustration will make clear the relation 
of this power of volition to the preceding power of 
choice and to the following power of exertion. A 
young man is considering his surroundings and capa- 
bilities, in order to fix upon some line of work for 
his life-employment. Various professions and trades 
are open to him. Carefully considering them all, 
and finding that he is especially adapted for mechan- 
ical pursuits, and that his circumstances are favorable 
for such labor, he deliberately, on this basis of sound 
reason, chooses to devote himself to this work. This 
is followed by the formation of a definite purpose to 
engage in that sphere of activity. As yet he has 
not formed a specific plan for action ; but his resolu- 
tion is, that in some way and by some means yet 
to be determined, he will engage in this chosen form 
of labor. Now follows the final step in the entire 
spirit-activity, the power of exertion. 

3. This power of exertion, or executive act, is 
the culmination of all the previous processes in the 
working of the spirit-life. Without it the largest 
knowledge, the deepest feelings, the clearest choice, 
and the grandest purpose, would avail nothing for 
the work of the world ; and the individual would 
drift, a mere dreamer, through life, with no putting 
forth of energy, and no achievement. Some plan 
must be formed, all necessary means must be gath- 
ered up and arranged, and then the whole power of 
the spirit must be exerted in the actual use of the 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 27 

means for the execution of the purpose, or all pre- 
vious forms of activity will remain fruitless. Here 
the power of execution is fully exercised. The spirit 
first, in this process, forms a plan ; that is, " fixes 
upon the series of efforts by which the man con- 
ceives that the end desired, chosen, and determined 
upon, may be reached." Every practical plan is a 
" series," or system, of means and ends ; and for 
successful achievement, all the means must be under 
proper control. This control is given by this same 
power of will. Then, when all the means are fully 
in hand, and all is ready for action, the will, by a 
decisive effort, exerts its force in actually achieving 
the purpose. All the powers of the being, all means 
available, are brought into action, under the perfect 
control and constant direction of -the will, and the 
purpose is accomplished. The will is thus the su- 
preme ruler and the directive power in all spirit- 
activity. It is known and recognized in conscious- 
ness as the cause, the efficient agency, of action, but 
is itself under the control, as shown above, of the 
reason, purposing and performing on the basis of 
rational preference. 

Much confusion of thought often arises over the 
question of the working of conscience, the moral 
nature. When consciousness is investigated, we find 
certain facts in each greal mode of spirit-act ivitv, 
which all combine in the working of conscience. 1 

The action of the intellect on moral questi( us is the 
Bame as on questions of any other ki . An action 
1 For fuller discussion, sec Gregory, Christian Ethics, pp. 80-92. 



28 THE GIST OF IT. 

is presented to the intellect ; and trying the action 
by the standard, or norm, of right, 1 it passes judgment 
upon it as right or wrong. These judgments assume 
five specific forms: — 

First. When we witness any moral action, we 
judge it to be right or wrong. For example, a man 
who cannot swim falls overboard from a ship, and 
is drowning. A strong sailor, skilled in swimming, 
plunges in after him, and rescues him at the risk of 
his own life. We pronounce that a right action. 
Here is the familiar judgment of moral approbation. 
A strong man, armed, falls upon another man, feeble 
and unarmed, and maltreats and kills him in order 
to take from him his purse. We pronounce that 
act wrong. Here is the familiar judgment of moral 
disapprobation. 

Second. When we consider any such moral action, 
we judge that there is an obligation to perform it 
as right, or to refrain from it as wrong. If it is 
right to rescue the drowning man, then it ought to 
be done ; and the sailor who is able to do it, is under 
obligation to do it. If it is wrong to rob and murder 
a man, then the strong man armed is morally bound 
not to do it. Here is the familiar judgment of moral 
obligation. 

Third. We say of the action of the sailor, it is 
meritorious, and ought to be rewarded : and we say 
of the action of the murderer, it has demerit; he 
is guilty, and ought to be punished. Here is the 
familiar judgment of moral merit and demerit in its 
various forms. 

i P. 12. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 29 

Fourth. We judge that the agent is free to choose 
or to reject the morally good or evil. The sailor 
may or may not attempt the rescue of the drowning 
man, as he pleases : the murderer may or may not 
murder and rob a man, as he pleases. This freedom 
of choice in action is that by which the agent makes 
the action his own, and becomes responsible for it. 
Here is the familiar judgment of moral freedom, 
which lies at the basis of responsibility. 

Fifth. We go farther, and judge the agent to be 
under, and amenable to, the moral law, and hence 
accountable to some supreme law-giver for his action. 
Here is the familiar judgment of accountability or 
responsibility to a Supreme Being. 

Following the action of the knowing-power in 
these moral judgments, is that of the power of 
emotion in the moral feelings. These feelings, as 
all others, arise only on presentation of the appropri- 
ate object, and so correspond to the moral judgments. 
There are two classes of these feelings, having refer- 
ence to both right and wrong action. When the 
judgment pronounces action right, obligatory, or 
meritorious, it awakens in the agent, if it be his 
own act, a feeling of moral approval and satisfaction : 
if it be another's act, a feeling of moral approval and 
esteem. When the judgment decides that an action 
is wrong, — one that ought not to be done, or one 
deserving of punishment, — there arises, if the action 
be the agent's own, a feeling of moral disapproval 
and shame, or self-reproach, often deepening into 
remorse; if it be another's act, a feeling of moral 
disapproval and indignation, often deepening into 



30 THE GIST OF IT. 

moral aversion, or into moral vinclictiveness, or a 
feeling which would lead to the avenging of the 
wrong. 

After these facts of moral feelings, certain specific 
moral facts in the action of the will come to light. 
In general, the normal tendency of the will is to im- 
pel the agent to adopt, and attempt to realize, the 
morally good in his own conduct and that of others, 
and to reject and prevent the morally evil. These 
moral facts of will are of two classes. When the 
action contemplated by the intellect, and appealing 
to the moral feelings, is something that may be done 
by ourselves, there arises, as has been seen, — when 
the will has free play, — first, the choice, or preference, 
to do it ; then the volition, or purpose, to do it ; and, 
finally, the effort, resulting in the completed action. 
In the case of the failure of the man to move, by the 
will, his powers to the performance of that which is 
right and obligatory, there arises a moral protest of 
the agent against his own course, which often leads 
to a perpetual moral strife in his soul, and, when suf- 
fered to continue, ends in despair of achieving the 
moral task of life, and in utter moral wreck. When 
the action contemplated, and inciting to feeling, per- 
tains to some one else than the agent contemplating 
it, there arises the wish to see, or not to see, it accom- 
plished, as it is right or wrong, and the purpose to 
aid or hinder its accomplishment. If it be already 
accomplished, there arises the impulse to reward or 
punish the agent, as the case may require. 

All the above are facts of experience, which every 
one finds when lie examines the working of his own 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 31 

spirit-activity in regard to moral questions. Closer 
scrutiny of consciousness reveals certain other facts of 
intuition, which lie art the basis of moral experience. 
Intuitive moral ideas are revealed in experience. 
The ideas of right, wrong, duty, responsibility, 
obligation, and others like them, are among these. 
Consciousness affirms that these are not mere words, 
but that they represent veritable ideas of the spirit. 
These ideas are found in all men ; for, though all do 
not consciously recognize them, yet even the lowest 
savages act upon them. Man cannot divest himself 
of these ideas. They arise naturally and necessarily 
in the spontaneous working of his nature, and are as- 
sumed in all his moral experience. It is not possible 
to resolve " these moral ideas ... by any process 
of thought into any more ultimate ideas on which 
they depend, or into any simpler elements of which 
they are made up/' They are, in the fullest sense of 
the term, original and independent ideas. 

There also arise, in experience, certain intuitive 
moral judgments. These may be all resolved into 
two: first, one is bound to do the best in all the re- 
lations in which lie may be placed ; second, one is 
bound to consider the right as supreme in its claims 
upon him, and so to put lightness above perfection 
or happiness in his actions. The first of these fur- 
nishes the germ-thoughts for all duties, the second 
determines what the standard and guide of duty shall 

14 These moral judgments are not mere uncertain 
ralizations from experience, but intuitive and 
ividenl principles. The moral agent, in his nor- 
mal condition, immediately and intuitively discerns 



32 THE GIST OF IT. 

the Tightness of them, and their binding force on him- 
self and all other like agents, now and always, in this 
world and in all worlds. . . . This may be shown by 
subjecting any one of them to the test of . . . con- 
sciousness. For example, take the love of our 
neighbor. Is it right, or wrong? If right, is it right 
necessarily, immutably, and universally, or only con- 
tingently, changeably, and in some cases only? Is it 
right for one man, and wrong for another ? right in 
America, and wrong in Asia or the far-distant parts 
of the universe ? right two thousand years ago, and 
wrong now? To all such questioning, the response 
of consciousness is clear and emphatic." It is true, 
further, that these moral judgments are made clearer 
as the individual is morally elevated. The moral en- 
lightenment of the Stoics was vastly superior to that 
of the Sophists of the time of Socrates, and in the 
writings of such men as Seneca and Marcus Aurelius 
Antoninus these moral judgments are found much 
more clearly recognized. In the system of Jesus of 
Nazareth, confessedly the noblest and most perfect 
of all moral teachers, " all these moral principles are 
at once fully and consciously recognized, and clearly 
and completely stated." 

These moral judgments are combined into an inner 
law, stamped upon the make-up of man's spirit, which 
constitutes both a rule in his action, and an expres- 
sion of the true performance of that action. That 
there is such a law in man's spirit-activity is not dis- 
proven by the fact that the conduct of men is often 
at variance with these principles. Every man's con- 
sciousness testifies that, for some reason, his nature 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 33 

is not in its proper condition. Conscious of the fact 
of moral weakness and wickedness, he is also con- 
scious that this state is not normal. As Pascal puts 
it, " There is a schism in the very soul itself. Two 
facts here present themselves, — the one, that man, by 
the very constitution of his mind, approves of moral 
good, and disapproves of moral evil ; the other, that 
he neglects the good, and commits the evil." All the 
great thinkers of the world who have examined con- 
sciousness in relation to this matter, agree in their 
belief in the existence and binding force of this inner 
moral law, or standard of action. 

The great German philosopher, Kant, says of it, 
" Two things there are, which, the oftener and the 
more steadfastly we consider them, fill the mind with 
an ever-new and ever-rising admiration and rever- 
ence, — the STARRY HEAVEN above, the MORAL LAW 
within. Of neither am I compelled to seek out its 
reality, as veiled in darkness, or only to conjecture 
its possibility, as beyond the sphere of my knowledge. 
Both I contemplate lying clear before me, and con- 
nect both immediately with the consciousness of my 
own existence. ... In the former, the first view of 
a countless multitude of worlds annihilates, as it were, 
my importance as an animal creation, which, after a 
brief and incomprehensible endowment with the 
powers of life, is compelled to refund its constituent 
matter to the planet — itself an atom in the universe 
— on which it grew. The other, on the contrary, 
immeasurably elevates my worth as an intelligence, and 
this through my personality, in which the moral 
law reveals to me a life independent of the animal 



34 THE GIST OF IT. 

kingdom, nay, of the whole material world ; at least, 
if it be permitted to infer as much from the regulation 
of my being exacted by a conformity with that law, 
which is not restricted by the conditions and limits 
of this life, but stretches out to eternity." 

Kant's belief in the binding force of this inner law 
is thus expressed by Professor Bowen : 1 "It is obvious 
that the moral law is purely a priori. It discards all 
reference to experience ; it is of absolute and intrinsic 
obligation, prior to all command ; and it is universal, 
for it admits no exceptions, makes no compromises, 
and assumes authority over all intelligent beings, 
whether human or divine. Kant appropriately de- 
nominates it the categorical imperative. This fun- 
damental law of the practical reason bears the form 
of an ' imperative,' — that is to say, a command, — 
because man is not purely rational, but also a sensu- 
ous being, and the senses are generally in active op- 
position to the reason. It is not, like the maxims of 
prudence or utility, merely a hypothetical or condi- 
tioned command. It does not, like them, say, w Do 
this if you would avoid a whipping, do it if you would 
go to heaven, if you would be happy, if you would 
have wealth or honor with your fellow-men,' etc. 
But it is a l categorical imperative,' an absolute com- 
mand. It says, ' Do this, though the heavens should 
fall ; do it, though thereby you should lose every thing 
in this world, and should even forfeit all hope in the 
world which is to come ; DO IT, and think not at all 
of the consequences. Be just, and fear not.' This 
law operates upon conduct, because it is instinctively 
i Modem Philosophy, p. 248. 



TEE FACTS OF LIFE. 35 

regarded, not merely with approbation, but with 
reverence and awe : we cannot disobey its behests, 
except with a feeling of shame and self-humiliation." 
Conclusive proof of the existence of this inner law, 
or standard, is found in the examination of conscious- 
ness when some moral action is brought before it for 
consideration. " The moral conclusions are reached 
by the comparison of the particular case to be tested 
with some general principle involved in this standard. 
For example, one sees a strong man take away the 
money of a weaker for no other reason than that he 
covets it. The act appeals to the spectator's sense 
of justice. But what is justice ? What decides it? 
There must be some principle or standard at the basis, 
by which to decide what man's just rights are. The 
spectator tries it by the principle that every man has 
a right to his own property. By this fundamental 
law he judges the act, and when he decides that it 
actually comes under this law, and violates it, he 
pronounces it wrong and unjust. There is evident 
reference to a moral standard, and the wrongness 
consists in the want of conformity to that standard. 
Chinese parents often murder their own female chil- 
dren. They do not immediately and intuitively 
decide this course to be right. There is reasoning 
somewhat on this wise: 'Is it right to destroy our 
child? Parents are bound to consult the best inter- 
of their offspring. The destruction of this child 
will save it from the incalculable evils of this present 
world, and will be for it 3 bet i interests: therefore it is 
right to destroy it ! ' Dr. Archibald Alexander teaches 
that the matter is referred to the general principle that 



86 THE GIST OF IT. 

'parents should consult the best interests of their 
offspring.' . . . That is, each case is referred to some 
principle or standard, by agreement or disagreement 
with which it is decided to be right or the opposite."' 
Thus this inner law becomes the rale of the spirit- 
activity. It is not meant that all men everywhere 
and always consciously recognize these principles. 
A moral agent may make application of these princi- 
ples in the concrete for a lifetime without ever com- 
ing to a conscious recognition of them as abstract 
principles or rules. A man may see intuitively that 
any particular act of violence against his neighbor 
is wrong, without ever having distinctly stated to 
himself the moral principle which requires a due 
regard to all his neighbor's interests. The moral 
decisions are made at the first intuitively ; but in the 
course of observation and experience, the intelligent 
man lays hold of the principle thus involved as an 
intuition, consciously states it to himself as a princi- 
ple of conduct, and intelligently applies it in regu- 
lating his life. The inner law is thus the rule for 
man's guidance in his separate moral acts. But a 
man's life is not simply a succession of separate acts. 
All his acts are related to each other in a connected 
series, and so the whole life may be regarded as one 
complete act. Hence this inner law becomes the 
expression to him of the true performance of his life- 
achievement. 

The question of the freedom of the will 1 is capa- 
ble, in view of these facts, of intelligent solution. 

1 For these distinctions, tlie author is indebted to Dr. Ormond. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 37 

All action of the will involves a choice of some kind. 
In spontaneous choice the action of the will is deter- 
mined by some impulse, a passion or desire of some 
kind, seeking its gratification, and suffered to move 
unchecked. In rational preference a new element is 
introduced. It is not a question of the gratification 
of an impulse, but of the attainment of an end, as 
in the case above referred to, of the young man deter- 
mining on mechanical pursuits. Hence the great 
matter is, what end to choose, and what means as 
best adapted to secure that end. There may be vari- 
ous ways open to the young man, as a course in an 
industrial school, or a training as apprentice in a 
machine-shop. When an end is chosen, the individ- 
ual sets it before himself as the goal of his efforts; 
and it also becomes a motive principle within him, 
inciting and guiding his exertion. But the end which 
is chosen is one among alternatives. At the least, it 
is a question whether to choose that specific end or 
not; or it may be which of various ends to choose. 
Thus, the young man might have to choose simply 
whether or not he would be a mechanic ; or the ques- 
tion might be whether to be a mechanic, or a doctor, 
a lawyer, or engage in some other occupation. There 
is thus involved a process of judgment, 1 or compari- 
son of the various ends presented, to learn their rela- 
tive importance and make choice intelligent. It is 
not a matter of indifference which end is chosen. In 
the whole process of judging, there is present the 
categorical imperative, conscience, insisting that cer- 
tain ends ought to be chosen, and certain means for 

I Pp 1!, 15. 



38 THE GIST OF IT. 

the attainment of those ends ought to be fixed upon. 
No effort can divest the mind of this sense of ouglit- 
ness in its choice of ends, and so all ends are distin- 
guished on this basis ; and the choice of any one, 
resulting from this whole process of judgment, is a 
moral decision. The test of ends is thus worth ; of 
means, their fitness to secure the ends ; and so the 
supreme principle of choice, the law of the will, is 
moral design. 

Responsibility in choice is a fact of consciousness. 
It is dependent on two conditions : the choice must 
be free, and the one choosing must know what he is 
doing. The man who is compelled to sign a docu- 
ment giving away all his property, and one who is 
ignorantly betrayed into such an act, are not in either 
case held responsible for their action. 

What is meant by freedom of choice? It must be 
consistent with moral obligation, for this categorical 
imperative cannot be put away, with responsibility, 
for consciousness unhesitatingly affirms that man is 
responsible ; and with the law of motives, for con- 
sciousness emphatically asserts that all choice is by 
reason and in view of certain motives. The choice 
is self-determined. No outside agency compels the 
person to choose as he does. It is determined by 
the law of motives. A choice on the ground of no 
motive is inconceivable. But this law of motive is 
a law of the spirit's own nature, and so this is an 
essential idea in self-determination. The choice of 
an end involves the possession of power to reach that 
end. Choice is meaningless if the person have no 
inherent power to put forth in the realization of the 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 39 

end fixed upon. Freedom may then be defined as 
the power of self-determination according to the law 
of motive. 

Freedom is not a condition of obligation. Obliga- 
tion springs from the binding of the moral law, the 
categorical imperative. Man is weak and imperfect. 
But this law is perfect and absolute. It presses upon 
him, and demands compliance with its behests, regard- 
less of the efficiency of the individual. I ought does 
not include / can. On the contrary, when obligation 
appears, it creates the conditions of its own action ; 
so that I ought becomes a condition of I can. 

Freedom is thus not absolute and lawless. It is 
self-determination. No external force compels the 
action of the will. But the spirit is governed by a 
law arising from its own nature, requiring it to 
choose on the basis of knowledges secured by the 
knowing-power, and made motives by the power of 
emotion, testing all ends by their moral worth, and 
all means by their fitness to attain those ends. 

While much has been written regarding the 
aesthetic nature, — the beautiful, the sublime, the per- 
fect, taste and sentiment, have been discussed and 
re-discussed with great exhibition of aesthetic power, 
or in the baldest philosophical hair-splitting; yet, no 
such elaboration of the workings of this part of man's 
spirit-activity as in the realm of the ethical nature 
has ever been produced. This is, doubtless, due to 
the fact that tin.' ethical nature deals with action, and 
forces its operations upon the attention whether one 
will or no ; while the aesthetic nature, dealing only 



40 THE GIST OF IT. 

with appearances, may be, sometimes must be, dis- 
regarded. A man may gaze upon Niagara, and be 
stirred by no feeling save a regret that so much 
water-power should run to waste ; the fair face of a 
beautiful maiden, mantling with the heavenly light 
of woman's purest, deepest, love, may fail utterly to 
arouse in his calloused spirit aught above the merest 
animalism : but the necessities of life force upon him 
the consideration of moral issues, and the recognition 
of ethical standards and distinctions. It is to be hoped 
that some one will supply this deficiency, and furnish 
art and literary criticism and construction a scientific 
basis and method, by carefully developing the psycho- 
logical steps and principles involved in this depart- 
ment of activity. Here the following may be stated 
as established. 1 

That which is called the aesthetic nature is a com- 
plex operation of the simple powers of the spirit, 
analogous to the ethical nature. Knowledges are com- 
pared with an inner standard of the knowing-power ; 
and appropriate emotions, correspondent exactly to 
the result of the comparison, are then excited. 

The subject-matter of aesthetics is beauty, — the 
beautiful. This is rightly defined as "ideal perfec- 
tion revealed to the reason in some particular concrete 
object or combination of objects." 2 In other words, 
when, in the contemplation of any object or combi- 
nation of objects, the observer perceives that they 
embody some ideal of perfection, and that such em- 

1 Ruskin: Modern Painters, vol. i. chap. i. Harris: Philosophical 
Basis of Theism, chap. x. McCosh: Emotions. 
? Harris: Philosophical Basis of Theism, p. 230. 



TEE FACTS OF LIFE. 41 

bodiment is complete, the feelings are quickened 
toward it as beautiful. The standard of comparison 
is the norm of the perfect, 1 the intuitive idea of per- 
fection. A thing is perfect which is constituted 
exactly in accordance with the laws and conditions 
of its being. The spirit's power of perceiving this 
exact realization is its power of comparison. 

Beauty is " ideal perfection revealed to the reason." 
It is, then, incorrect to affirm that beauty is created 
in the mind of the observer. The ideal of perfection 
must be embodied, or it could never be perceived by 
the observer ; and it would exist just as certainly if 
he were not beholding it. Sublime mountain scenerj r , 
as of Mont Blanc, could never be imagined if it had 
never been in some way embodied ; while the vener- 
able peak, rearing above the clouds its lofty head, 
white with eternal snows, under the varying play of 
shadows and ice-reflected hues, retains its majestic 
grandeur though no delighted eye gazes upon it with 
wondering admiration. Neither is it true to say that 
beauty results from a chance arrangement of parts or 
objects. The Venus de Milo is beautiful because it 
is an exact reproduction in marble of an ideally 
perfect human form. But it is the product of the 
highest genius, the embodiment of the ideal of some 
ancient sculptor. Liszt's Second Rhapsody, exqui- 
sitely beautiful, is the concrete expression, through 
a combinatioD of musical tones, of the composer's 
perfect ideal. The beautiful thus is not only a pos- 
sible means of communication from mind to mind. 

but necessarily is produced when the thought of 

1 P. 12. 



42 THE GIST OF IT. 

one spirit — a thought ideally complete — is perfectly 
embodied in such form that another intelligence can 
grasp it. 

Evidently, this revelation may be in varying de- 
grees. The revealing mind may not be exact and 
complete in its conception of the ideal, or the 
material of the embodiment may not be able to give 
the ideal adequate expression. In either case the 
effect will be varied. A young artist's ideas may 
not be clear, and his first etchings may be imperfect ; 
yet, while this would forbid their being called beauti- 
ful, they may be pretty. Where the ideal is not of 
a high order, and is too easily grasped by the ob- 
server, but, revealing itself in a landscape, adds to 
the picture-like grouping and position of the various 
objects the elements of quiet harmony and peace, it 
rises to the picturesque ; as in an ordinary country 
landscape, with its waving fields of golden grain, 
patches of woodland here and there, green meadows 
in which cattle are grazing, and, perchance, a brook 
winding like a silver thread across the scene. An 
ideal of' a higher order, perfectly embodied and 
exactly suited to the observer's power of perception 
and comparison, rises to the beautiful. Unusual 
manifestations of the aurora borealis — when the 
heavens are hung with heavy folds of richly colored 
drapery, flashing resplendent with ever-changing 
shades of silver and crimson, pink and blue, and fully 
exercising the mind in their contemplation — give to 
the beautiful an exquisite expression. In the electric 
storm, amidst the continuous blaze of lightning and 
incessant thunder-peal, the mind cannot take in the 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 43 

full meaning of the scene : immeasurable power in 
tremendous exercise, mysteriously wielded, overawes 
the spirit, and fills it with the idea of the sublime. 

The elements in which the ideal is embodied may 
be infinitely varied in their combination, and thus 
give rise to complex emotions. " The smoke curling 
from the cottage, in the sweet vales, say, of Wicklow 
or Kilkenny, in Ireland, deepens the sentiment of 
quiet and peacefulness as we cherish the idea of 
happy dwellers within. The Scotch and Swiss lakes 
are seen to sleep so quietly in scenes of terror. The 
deep gorges in the fiords of Norway, and of the 
Saginaw in Canada, guarded so strongly on both 
sides, are relieved by the living streams in their 
bosoms. The awfulness of the cataract is often illu- 
minated by the sheen and sparkle of the waters, 
which may be illuminated, as at Niagara and the 
Staubbach, by the rainbow on its spray, compared by 
Byron to love and madness. Often is there life 
communicated to a scene in Nature, which would 
otherwise be hard or dull, by a tree, or a plant, or a 
little flower clinging to the rocks, or coming out of 
the crevices modestly to show its beauties, and 
timidly to look for a brief season upon the da)' and 
the scene around it. These fleecy clouds lying on 
our hills and dales add to their loveliness as our day- 
dreams give a freshness to our dull habitual life. 
Scenes of terror are often softened by the leafy foli- 
age in which they are embosomed. The beauties of 
the Rhine are greatly enhanced by the antiquated 
towers associated with adventure, and the vineyards 
on its banks. In all such cases, the sentiment is 



44 THE GIST OF IT. 

intensified by the unexpectedness of the object, by 
the dissimilarity and contrast. In other cases, all the 
objects conspire to produce one effect: the mountains 
in deep shadow, the steep precipice, the turreted 
rock, may all be before us, and in one view. The 
howling wind, the agitated wave, the ship driven 
helplessly, all enhance our idea of the power of these 
moving elements. It has to be added, that there may 
be associations which completely counteract and sup- 
press the aesthetic feeling. The man weighed down 
with earthly cares, or with sorrow, cannot appreciate 
beauty. Solomon tells us how vain it is to 4 sing 
songs to a heavy heart.' " x 

Thus is completed the view of the spirit-activity. 
Is it not a wonderful mechanism? It is the function 
of the man as knowing-power to gather knowledges, 
and present them to the spirit as ends of action ; the 
function of the man in the power of feeling to rouse 
himself in appropriate response to these ends of 
action, furnishing in turn the springs of action for the 
will ; and the business of the man in the power of 
will to choose among these ends, and incite and direct 
the spirit-powers toward the attainment of the one 
preferred. In its normal condition, working naturally 
and freely, the knowing-power would truthfully 
gather up knowledges, and work them into faultless 
systems ; the feelings would respond appropriately 
and powerfully to the various knowledges ; and the 
power of will would be exerted in rational, noble, 
plans, accomplishing great and effective purposes. 

i McCosh: Emotions, pp. 17G, 177. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 45 



II. 



This spirit is to live and develop in a material 
universe. It must, therefore, have some means of 
communication which will enable it to operate in the 
physical world. Hence we find it enclosed in a body, 
and manifesting itself through it. Now, just as it 
was found -that the delicate and curiously involved 
constitution of the spirit is exactly adapted to the 
work which it must perforin; so, in this second mem- 
ber of the combination which, in its complex unity, 
we call man, the same wonderful suiting of parts 
and marvellous fitness of the entire mechanism for 
its purposes is noticeable. There Ls no mechanism 
in the world of living nature, or in the contrivances 
of man's inventive genius, which so unites as does 
the body of man, in small compass and with little 
weight, so many and such various appliances for 
work of as many different kinds, and involving such 
an expenditure of energy. The most superficial 
knowledge of anatomy and physiology awakens ad- 
miration and wonder, as the perfect appropriateness 
of each part, and the beautiful, mysterious, combi- 
nation of all the parts, are observed. The familiarity 
of these facts renders superfluous any discussion of 
them here, save in so far as is necessary for our main 
inquiry, — How is the body fitted for the needs and 
use of the spirit? 

The spirit must have a place in which to live and 
work in this material world. A bodiless spirit, wan- 
dering through the earth without "a local habita- 
tion," w ul I be in a pitiable condition for the work of 



46 THE GIST OF IT. 

life. It must have some permanent and fixed home, 
where it can retire, and, as the strong man in his 
citadel, work out its purposes, and carry on its activ- 
ity, secluded from the world. Then, too, if the spirit 
is to have any communication with the material 
world, it must have some material medium of inter- 
course. Furthermore, it is in the physical world, 
and by means of physical forces and elements, that 
the work of the spirit is to be accomplished ; and it 
must, in consequence, be provided with a substantial, 
material instrument, through which it can affect and 
mould the physical world. All these purposes the 
body perfectly subserves. 

The basis of the body is the bony skeleton, fur- 
nishing a strong and substantial, but yet compact, 
graceful, and light, framework for the entire make- 
up. Upon this skeleton is placed the muscular sys- 
tem, which is the instrument of power, moving the 
parts of the skeleton, capable of sudden, great, and 
long-continued, exertion, and adapting the body to 
many employments. It is the same hand, and the 
same muscles, that use the pen, the scissors, the ball, 
the oar, and the needle ; that talk to the deaf, and 
read for the blind ; that draw beautiful strains of 
music from the piano and violin, and set the type for 
the printed page ; that give the clasp of friendship, 
and smooth the pillow of the dying : and all is 
gathered up in a form of lightness, grace, and beauty, 
unsurpassed in the intricacy and elegance of its 
combination. 

The spirit, dwelling in this body, must have some 
means of instant communication with every part, so 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 47 

as to know at once and direct all the physical activ- 
ity. For this purpose a wonderful telegraph, the 
nervous system, is inwoven throughout the entire 
organism, connecting all the organs of the five senses 
with the brain, so putting the spirit in communica- 
tion with the outside world, and transmitting infor- 
mation back and forth from every part of the body. 

It is true that this nervous system, culminating in 
the brain especially, is the direct machinery by which 
the spirit controls and uses the body ; it is also cer- 
tain that in this use, there is waste and exhaustion of 
the nervous force ; and it is very probable that the 
amount of exhaustion, of wear and tear, of consump- 
tion of nervous force, is proportioned to the use made 
of the nervous system by the spirit: but it does not 
follow that therefore the nervous system, or any 
part of it, is the spirit, or that nervous force and 
spirit force, nerve action and spirit action, are iden- 
tical. Without entering into detailed argument, the 
soundness of this conclusion is obvious from two 
considerations : — 

First, all movements in the physical world are 
determined by necessary laws, and may be predicted 
when those laws are known : to this fact the nervous 
system is no exception. But in no case is it pos- 
sible to determine with absolute certainty, from the 
condition of the nervous system, how much or what 
kind of spirit-action will be manifested. 

Second, spirit-activity, in both form and amount, is 
frequently out of all proportion to nervous action. If 
thought, Tccling. volition, are functions of the brain, 
then they must be governed exactly by the laws of 



48 THE GIST OF IT. 

matter which rule the brain, and must, of necessity, 
be proportionate in both form and amount to the 
brain or nerve action, and necessarily consequent 
upon it. Then it unavoidably results that the best 
and most spirit-action will be found in connection 
with the most and best nerve or brain organization, 
and vice versa. Instead of this, however, every one 
is familiar with the instances of fine plrysical organi- 
zation, perfect nervous systems, in connection with 
moderate or ineffective spirit-activity; and likewise, 
some of the greatest manifestations of spirit-action, 
by some of the greatest thinkers among men, have 
been through weak and diseased nervous systems. 

These facts are wholly inexplicable if the spirit, 
the mind, be either a function of the nervous system, 
or a still more refined organization, but yet the same 
in nature as the material body. The theory of the 
spirit as a separate and different existence, operating 
through the body as its material mechanism, explains 
all the facts, and is, therefore, still to be maintained. 
The fact that no one can explain how the spirit or 
soul of man affects the physical organization, or can 
unfold the nature and mysterious workings of the 
connection of nerve- and mind-action, does in no 
way make against the truth of this theory. If we 
are to disbelieve all that is not and cannot be 
explained, blank and universal scepticism is the only 
and inevitable result. 

This wonderful machinery must be protected from 
the action of the outer world, must not be exposed 
to its direct influence; so a system of coverings, the 
various layers of the skin, is wound about the entire 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 49 

surface of the body, forming a safe defence against 
all the ordinary attacks of external influences. 

One thing more is needed. The use of any force 
or element results in consumption and waste of that 
used. Hence there must be some way of supplying 
this waste in the body, some means of preparing, and 
carrying to every part of the organization, fresh ele- 
ments to take the place of those consumed. The re- 
spiratory and digestive systems thus supply the body 
with fresh materials for its use, and expel worn-out and 
useless elements ; while the circulatory system carries 
throughout the body the supplies thus provided. 

It is, finally, needful that there be some directive 
force to rule and guide in the operation of these 
various systems ; something to give and preserve 
plan and organization in the body, to so control the 
distribution of supplies as to carry just what is 
needed to each part, and to then weave into every part 
the new product ; so that from the common supply 
furnished by the digestive sj'stem are woven here a 
muscle, there a nerve or bone, just as occasion 
requires. This work is performed by the mysterious 
agent known as life, 1 or vital force, which, from all 
the materials furnished, weaves, organizes, and 
renews, the body ; and in order that the time and 
energy of the spirit may be reserved for higher pur- 
poses, all this work of preparing and using the sup- 
plies needed for the renewal of the body is carried 
on through the respiratory, digestive, and circulatory 
systems, and under the guidance of the life-force, 
without the conscious control of the spirit. 

i Pp. 4.1, 4<i. 



50 THE GIST OF IT. 

Such, then, is the answer to our first question. 
Man is a twofold existence, — a spirit, free and self- 
active, with wondrous powers of knowledge and 
thought, of feeling, and of volition ; and a body, the 
home of the spirit, delicately fitted to all its require- 
ments in the material world, a perfect instrument 
for the work of the spirit in knowing and influen- 
cing the physical universe. 

From this point of view, the noblest and highest 
t}~pe of man is he who, by his power of knowing, 
operates freely and without bias, gathering continu- 
ally from both the outer and the inner world the 
largest measure of exact and truthful knowledges, 
working out unerringly their varied relations, and 
constructing them in perfect systems, according to 
the laws of the true, the beautiful, and the good ; 
who, by his power of emotion, responds immediately 
and in due measure and appropriate form to the 
knowledges thus presented, going out in affection 
and desire most deeply and strongly toward all that 
is seen to be pure and noble, right and loft}' and 
true, and powerfully inciting the will to exertion in 
the accomplishment of these ends of action : and 
who, by his power of will, freely acting under the 
guidance of reason and the standard of right, 
rationally prefers the best ends of action presented, 
and with resolute purpose, and far-reaching, all- 
comprehensive, plan, bends and holds all powers of 
spirit and body, all available resources of the inner 
and the outer world, in most decisive, persistent, 
united, effective, achievement : and whose body, 
developed and trained to the greatest possible 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 51 

strength, endurance, and dexterity, is the willing and 
ready instrument in executing the commands of the 
ruling spirit. 

Here we are met by a strange and startling fact. 
Some grave misfortune has happened to this spirit of 
man. Superstition and prejudice fetter the know- 
ing-power, until the man can not or will not take 
notice of the facts about him, and his thought- 
products are all distorted and confused : feeling 
becomes passion, the love of the beautiful and right 
is deadened, all the finer and nobler sensibilities are 
blunted, and the lower and baser emotions are 
oftenest, most easily, and most powerfully, excited ; 
while the will-power, the rightful dictator of action, 
has lost its free and rational control, and, itself a 
slave under the domination of passion and prejudice, 
hurls the whole being in futile and suicidal effort for 
the attainment of vain, wicked, or impossible, pur- 
poses. The path of the world's progress is full of 
the wrecks in individual and public life, resulting 
from this pitiable condition ; and to-day, in this 
noblest of all lands, dark clouds lower over the 
opening future of the nation till the bravest tremble 
fur fear, all because of the mischief wrought and 
working from this disordered constitution of man's 
spirit-life. 

In the final interpretation of the facts brought 
out in this investigation, this fact of lawlessness and 
wreck must be considered. Till then we suspend 
our judgment: and, having learned the nature of 
the mechanism of human activity, we pass next to the 
st udy <>l* its sphere and material. 



52 THE GIST OF IT. 



CHAPTER II. 

WHERE AM I? 

The general of an army must have his head- 
quarters, where he can receive all reports and infor- 
mation concerning his forces, the enemy, or the 
country, and whence he can issue his orders. Even 
if the army be in motion, the place of the general 
must be known to the commanders of the various 
divisions, and to the orderlies, so that communication 
with him may be rapid and sure. The workman 
must have his shop and tools, and they must be 
ready to his hand. It will not do for there to be 
constant uncertainty as to either the place or the 
material of his work. The scientist must know the 
progress of thought and discovery in his line of 
investigation, and the statesman must understand 
at what point in the development of national and 
race life his people are: otherwise, both alike risk 
failure and disappointment. 

It is essential for man likewise, if he is to accom- 
plish any life-work worth the doing, that he should 
know his situation, and the materials with which he 
is to carry out his purposes. He must be able to 
localize himself in space, in time, in the scheme of 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 53 

Nature, and in the unfolding of race-life. Tn thus 
finding where he is, the means with which he is to 
work will also become known. 

I. 

Only a few years have passed since a well-known 
NeAV-Engiand character made much sport for the 
"funny men " of the newspapers, by terming himself 
a " citizen of the universe." At first sight, it seems 
indeed absurd that a man should think of defining 
his situation with reference to the mighty universe 
of worlds which sweep with inconceivable rapidity 
and indescribable majesty through the limitless ex- 
panses of space. Modern science, however, demon- 
strates not only the possibility, but the absolute 
certainty, that at every instant of his life a man's 
exact location may be determined, with perfect accu- 
racy, from any portion of the material universe. 
Through the ether " this earth is in actual rigid 
contact with the most distant worlds in space, — in 
rigid contact, that is to sa}% through a medium 
which touches and envelops all, and which is inces- 
santly communicating from one world to another the 
minutest vibrations it receives." * By means of cer- 
tain of these vibrations, giving rise to the sensation 
of light, the distances of many of these worlds have 
been, within the limits of error, accurately measured ; 
and through the combined agency of light and gravi- 
tation- their size and density and weight are known. 

1 Duke of Argyle: Unity <>f Nature, p. 9. 

2 This term is used to include both centrifugal and centripetal 
forces. 



54 THE GIST OF IT. 

Yet more. By the agency of this force l of gravi- 
tation, whose nature is wrapped in a mystery still 
baffling the closest scrutiny, the entire material 
universe, in all its parts, is combined into one vast 
mechanism. So delicate is the adjustment of the 
parts of this intricate machinery, and so rapid the 
action of the force controlling all, that the slightest 
movement of the smallest particle of matter in any 
part of the universe is instantly felt throughout all 
other portions ; while such is the all-comprehensive 
and powerful influence of this mysterious force, that 
it at once holds in their orbits with iron grasp the 
mighty worlds wheeling in their mazy combinations, 
and forms and balances the tiny dewdrop, sparkling 
on the grass-tip in the morning sunshine. Of this 
curiously involved machinery, man's body is a part; 
and thus, through the action of these physical forces, 
he is forever localized. Every movement of any 
part of the body is instantly photographed by the 
light, and borne away through space, or telegraphed 
by the force of gravitation to every particle of mat- 
ter in the most distant worlds. From this fixing of 
his situation, there is no escape, while man is in con- 
nection with the material universe. He may flit 
incessantly from place to place, scale the loftiest 
mountains, hide himself in the darkest caverns of 
the earth, traverse the trackless ocean or the more 
trackless air, or enshroud himself in the profoundest 
depths of the fathomless sea: yet at every instant 
of his various course his exact location has been 

1 If it be a force at all. "The physical causes of gravitation are 
absolutely unknowu " (Unity of Nature, p. 124). 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 55 

necessarily fixed; and so perfect a record of his 
movements does he leave, through the action of 
these forces, combined with chemical agencies, that 
no great effort of the imagination is necessary to 
conceive, that, by some higher mathematics than 
man can use, every vibration can be traced back to 
its origin, and the place and nature of every action 
shown. 

Thus, at every moment of time, the relative posi- 
tion of each person in the entire universe is accu- 
rately and definitely fixed and known : and even lie 
who disbelieves in a personal supreme Deity, to 
whom he can say, "Thou, God, seest me!" — even 
he is driven, by the conclusive evidence of literal 
scientific fact, to the unwavering belief, the unques- 
tionable knowledge, that his position and movements 
in space are measured and fixed unerringly from the 
remotest bounds of the material creation. 

II. 

To fix one's date is an easy and seemingly a 
simple task ; e.g., June 1, 1887, A.D. Let us see, 
however, what is involved in this brief statement. 
A.I), is contrasted with and suggests B.C., bringing 
up at once the birth of Christ as the point from 
which, forward to the present, and backward to the 
beginning, all our reckonings run. From that date 
to the present we count with certainty. But how 
far back must we go to "the beginning"? To the 
time when man first appeared on this planet, and 
began his race-life? Later scientific progress vitiates 
the wild guesses of older enthusiasts, and modern 



56 THE GIST OF IT. 

opinion is in favor of a comparatively recent date. 
But who will get a full conception of even these 
shorter chronologies ? The habit of some scientific 
speculators, of dealing with only enormous numbers, 
— "millions of years," "cycles of centuries," — lias 
generated the idea that any lesser concepts of time 
are too paltry for consideration. Let one, however, 
try to realize what is involved in the flight of time 
for simply six thousand or ten thousand years, and 
he will materially modify his opinions. 

Yet, if this be the date of man's beginning, and 
you succeed in picturing it vividly to yourself, you 
are still only on the outskirts of the measureless 
stretches of time in the history of the earth. Long, 
long ages before man appeared, the earth was teeming 
with life, animal and vegetable, preparing it for his 
use ; and still farther back, beyond abysses of time 
which mock the wildest imagination, the earth was 
being formed and fitted as the throne of life : and, 
while of much of that duration we are ignorant, 
while, had we the data to calculate it, its mathe- 
matical statement would be meaningless to our finite 
comprehension, yet every second has been measured 
off and reckoned, and, could we unravel the secrets 
of Nature, we could unerringly determine the exact 
date of every event, from the beginning of the for- 
mation of the earth until now. 

The scope of the content of time will probably 
give a more satisfactory conception. Dig down into 
the earth beneath your feet. Perchance you live on 
the drift, — a few hundred feet of unstratified dirt 
scattered over a large part of the face of America 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 57 

and Europe. If so, pass that by as one of the 
unsolved mysteries of science, unless you can accept 
the ice-sheet hypothesis, with its yet irreconcilable 
anomalies, or Donnelly's curious hypothesis, that 
all this was deposited by a comet with which our 
little planet came into collision. 1 Perhaps you may 
quickly find crystalline rocks, granites and schists. 
All these were once stratified, but have been changed 
in structure by various natural agencies. It would 
be an impossible task to attempt to penetrate directly 
through these layers of rock; but just as one may 
tilt, or set on edge, a pile of nicely folded papers, so, 
by the action of natural forces, these la} T ers of rock 
have been thrown up from the horizontal, and accu- 
rate measurements can be taken across their edges. 
Here measure : twenty thousand, thirty thousand, 
and — supplying by rigid mathematical calculations 
parts evidently worn away — forty thousand feet of 
stratified rock are found. 

Now, go to the lake or the river, and watch the 
deposit of earthy materials by the waters. Come 
back, and, intensifying largely, if you will, the action 
of those forces in past times, calculate the ages 
necessary for the deposit of those rocks, forty thou- 
sand feet in thickness. Yet this is not all of one 
deposit. Time and again during the process, deluge 
and earthquake have changed the surface of the 
globe, and interrupted the growth of rocky deposits ; 
while all the time the habitable portions were swarm- 
ing with life in increasingly complex and useful 
forms, and the remains of plant and animal alike 

1 Ignatius Donnelly: Ragnarok; or, The Age of Fire and Gravel. 



58 THE GIST OF IT. 

are part of the material of these rocks on which we 
move. 

Behind all this stretch the countless ages when — 
if the nebular hypothesis be true — the earth, torn 
from the sun, of which it had been a part, whirled 
in its orbit, a ball of fiery mist, and by long stages 
was condensed and cooled, until its outer surface 
hardened, and the first land was formed. All this 
is a history in time. It had a definite beginning, 
though we cannot fix the date, and has proceeded in 
time up to the perfecting of our present fair earth. 

The sweep of time may be viewed within a smaller 
sphere, — the history of man. Note here its com- 
prehensiveness. Man's life is a highly complex prod- 
uct. The inner spirit-life works out through the 
body in word and action, and embodies itself in 
the manners and customs of private, social, business, 
and public life ; in language, the vehicle of the 
mutual communication of a nation's ideas, and the 
surest means of their transmission to posterity ; in 
literature, with all its forms, so true an index of 
a people's life ; in religious systems and ceremonies, 
whether the crude fetichism of the African, the 
coarse sensuality of the Mohammedan, or the pure 
morality and ennobling worship of the Christian ; in 
law and philosophy, in invention and discovery, in all 
the numberless wuys which make up civilization, this 
life is manifested : and all this is contained in Time. 

Not, however, of only one class or nation of peo- 
ple is this true. The lordly merchant-prince contri- 
butes to Time the record of his gigantic commercial 
schemes, and the losses and gains of his golden mil- 



TUE FACTS OF LIFE. 59 

lions ; with equal fidelity the day-laborer, who hauls 
the bales, or piles the brick, of the merchant, yields 
to the safe-keeping of Time the daily record of his 
work : and with equal exactness and integrity Time 
receives and treasures both. The stunted Eskimo, 
hunting, in an arctic atmosphere, the seal and wal- 
rus, and living on their uncooked oil and blubber, 
has no thought of the record of Time ; the half- 
naked African, fleeing from the savage lion or the 
more cruel slave-driver, or hunting, through forest 
and jungle, his daily food, dreams not that his 
actions are ever included in Time ; the cultured, 
learned, European savant, versed in the lore of all 
ages, studies, with the absorbing zeal of a scientist, 
both Eskimo and African, and is too busy to 
remember that he, too, is adding to the wonderful 
record of Time : but, indifferent alike to learning 
and ignorance, to wealth and poverty, to culture and 
savagery, exactly portraying each in his truo light 
and proper surroundings, Time gathers and preserves 
them all in his all-comprehensive, his infinite embrace. 
Contemplate the earth at any instant, with its hun- 
dreds of millions of inhabitants, each in his place, 
and all in ceaseless activity : of them, and of all their 
surroundings, Time is forming his truthful record. 

Such has been the process during all the thousands 
of years since man began to be ; and, as we slowly 
and with difficulty turn the leaves of this marvellous 
book of Time, we find that in it have been carefully 
garnered and carried all the life of all men from the 
beginning until now. 

Take another point of view. Measure Time by 



60 THE GIST OF IT. 

what has been accomplished in it. The ruins of 
Western Asia reveal mighty civilizations, which grew 
and perished thousands of years ago. In the Tigro- 
Euphrates valley the succeeding nations of the Chal- 
daeans, Babylonians, Persians, built great walled cities, 
whose remains are marvellous in their extent and 
grandeur. They had thoroughly organized govern- 
ments, admirable military establishments, elaborately 
arranged religious observances, the greatest luxuries 
of civilized life. But twenty-two hundred years 
ago they were a decaying people. 

All our modern civilization looks back to Greece 
and Rome for the inspiration of its laws, philosophy, 
and literature ; to Judsea, for the sources of its reli- 
gion ; and to the ancient Teuton, for its spirit of 
individual liberty. Grecian arms held brief sway 
over almost all the ancient world ; for centuries Rome 
was the sole ruler of the race known to antiquity : 
but twenty-eight hundred years ago the Greeks were 
petty tribes, the place of many of whom cannot be 
fixed with certainty ; the Romans had no historic 
existence for two hundred and fifty years afterward, 
and nine hundred years later both civilizations were 
almost overwhelmed by the inrush of Northers bar- 
barians. Twelve hundred years ago, Mohammed, an 
outlawed enthusiast, with scanty followers, made his 
Hegira ;* but for four hundred years his vast reli- 
gious empire has been waning. 

Less than four hundred years ago Columbus started 
out westward over the Atlantic, to find a short route 

1 The Hegira, or flight of Mohammed from Mecca, occurred 
Sept. 20, G22 A.D. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 61 

to India, and roused all Europe to the consciousness 
of a new world beyond the sea. How marvellous 
the achievements of the race since then ! The entire 
earth, save the frigid poles, and some of the fast- 
nesses of the Dark Continent, has been traversed by 
scientific discoverers ; and its fauna and flora, its 
climate, all the phenomena of land, air, and water, 
have been observed, classified, interpreted. Every 
people in Christendom has been reconstructed ; and 
on this Western Continent, within three hundred 
years, the mightiest civilization of the world has 
been developed. Meanwhile the world of Nature 
has been wondrously studied and mastered, espe- 
cially in the last century. The cotton-gin, the loom, 
and the sewing-machine, have multiplied and cheap- 
ened all kinds of wearing material, greatly to the 
health and comfort of millions ; the printing-press 
has forever unfettered human thought, and diffused 
intelligence among all classes of the people ; while 
the railroad, the telegraph, and the telephone, have 
almost annihilated space and time, and brought the 
most distant lands into immediate communication 
with each other. Add to this the results of chemi- 
cal, mechanical, astronomical, biological, investiga- 
tion, — the sum is astounding. No department of 
human activity, in the home, the counting-room, or 
the school, but is impelled by .these natural agencies, 
and makes use of them for its purposes ; while, by 
the patient labors of scholars, all the treasures of 
antiquity are being poured at our feet, ready for our 
service. Yet all this is a work accomplished in time, 
— in how brief a time! 



62 THE GIST OF IT. 

Another method, akin to this last, may be taken 
to increase the vividness of the conception of the 
vast content of time. Consider, in three great 
spheres, the means of power which have been accu- 
mulated. 

First, in relation to the physical world, note how 
greatly the achievement of man is increased by the 
many material forces at his command. Steam, me- 
chanics, electricity, are the mightiest agencies in the 
hand of modern man. Two hundred and fifty years 
ago the fastest vessels were weeks in crossing the 
Atlantic, and when the American colonies sent to 
the mother-country for supplies, if storms of even 
a moderate character interfered, they might starve 
in their wild home before the fresh food reached 
them. Now the merchant, sitting in his office in 
New York, flashes across the ocean his orders for 
goods, and in six days they are laid at his door. 
Within a century past a six-column folio, with an 
edition of a few hundred copies, toilfully worked off 
on the old Franklin press, was a marvel of news- 
paper enterprise. Every morning now, our great city 
dailies issue scores of thousands of copies of papers, 
containing a bulk of fresh matter equal to half, or 
sometimes all, the New Testament. When, five years 
ago, the revised New Testament was issued in New 
York, our leading dailies gave in their columns the 
next morning a complete reproduction of it. Twenty- 
five years ago the North-West was covered with heavy 
forests, and a mill which cut a few million feet of 
lumber in a season was rare ; now the great mills 
of Michigan cut a million and a half feet of lumber 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 63 

a week, besides enormous quantities of lath and 
shingles : and it is easy to look forward to the date 
near at hand when those vast regions will be so 
stripped of their timber, that some substitute for 
lumber in our civilization must needs be devised. 
The results of mechanical invention are surprising 
in the extreme. What would Franklin have said 
of such an invention as the Scott Railroad Press, 
which prints, cuts, and folds fifty thousand news- 
papers an hour? or of the duplex telegraph instru- 
ments, whereby eight messages can be sent, and eight 
received, simultaneously, "at one point, over the same 
wire ? or of the pin-making machine, which cuts, 
heads, and points them at the rate of two hundred 
and fifty a minute? or of the new railroad telegraph, 
whereby, using the inductive power of the earth it- 
self, messages can be sent from the trains at any 
point on the road? The possibilities of achieve- 
ment in manufactures and commerce have been 
multiplied a thousand-fold by these agencies, and 
their application is being constantly increased. 

In the higher sphere of the mental life, in' litera- 
ture, law, philosophy, government, art, the thought 
and experience of the race have developed vast re- 
sources of power. The thought-products of all times 
and peoples have been made accessible, and their 
critical and comparative study has given birth to a 
whole company of sciences. The essential and acci- 
dental ideas and principles of the thinking of many 
nations have been distinguished and classified, and 
ideal models and systems scientifically constructed. 
So now we have schools for the education of men 



64 THE GIST OF IT. 

in statesmanship, in the fundamental principles and 
varying forms of all government, and of international 
law and intercourse. Literature and philosophy have 
been enriched by the products of past ages, and the 
principles developed for the (coming) ideal and per- 
fect work in these lines. All these are means of 
power for the exertion of tremendous influence in 
the thinking world. The man who grasps and un- 
derstands the philosophic thinking of the race since 
the days of Thales, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, and 
Aristotle ; or the literature of the Hindoo, Greek, 
Latin, and Teutonic peoples, in its growth and de- 
velopment, its sources and influence ; or the develop- 
ment of governments, from the old despotisms of 
Asia and Europe, the republicanism of Judaea, the 
beginnings of federation in Greece three hundred 
years before the Christian era, Roman citizenship 
and centralization and mediaeval feudalism, down to 
modern liberty as exemplified in England and our 
own country ; or the outworking of aesthetic genius 
in the unrivalled painting and sculpture of Zeuxis 
and Parrhasius, Phidias and Praxiteles, Michael 
Angelo, Titian, Rembrandt, and Landseer, and the 
music of Beethoven, Mozart, and Mendelssohn, — the 
man who is master of any one or more of these, or 
numerous other, departments of the thought-life of 
the race, has it in his power to change and mould 
the life of men to an almost unlimited extent. 

In the moral and religious life of men, there has 
been the same immense growth of powerful agencies. 
In this sense the present is one of the most intensely 
moral and religious ages of the world's history, 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 65 

namely, that men's minds are very busy with the 
problems presented in this sphere of life. Theolo- 
gian, philosopher, scientist, merchant, mechanic, all 
are greatly exercised over the complicated questions 
of man's nature, his relation to the future world and 
to God — the meaning, consequences, and cure of 
sin, the moral elevation of the race. Whatever 
the final result shall be, certain it is that never in 
the history of the world have moral issues been the 
focus of such a tremendous array of opposing forces. 
Many scientists, some of the leading ones, authorities 
in their own departments, and powerful, attractive 
writers, assert, on the basis of modern science, the 
eternity of matter, and its all-sufficiency to account 
fur the universe without the existence or interven- 
tion of a Deity. Scholars join them in refined and 
cultured agnosticism. The masses, particularly those 
who in densely crowded countries are ground under 
the heel of remorseless competition and wicked social 
and governmental tyranny, find in these teachings a 
release from patient endurance of legal wrong, and 
rush, whether logically or not, into misguided social- 
ism, insane communism, and suicidal anarchy, threat- 
ening to overthrow the civilizations of Christendom, 
and revolutionize society to its foundations. The 
liberty of conscience, of thought and of speech, which 
forms the bulwarks of modern governments, and all 
the enginery of modern life, which enables men so 
quickly and widely to influence their fellows, make 
rapid and threatening the rise and spread of these 
ideas. Opposed to tins combination of agencies, 
enjoying the same freedom, and using the same 



66 THE GIST OF IT. 

means, stands Christianity in its various forms. 
Christian scientists, the full equals in recognized 
ability and authority of their opponents, affirm that 
modern science necessitates the existence and work- 
ing in and through Nature of a Deity ; and Christian 
scholars and philosophers strive with them to beat 
back the rising tide of materialism. While the social- 
istic tendencies among the masses are met and con- 
tested by the equally powerful influences which 
pervade all society, favoring settled Christian gov- 
ernment. Verily, it is a battle of the giants. 

By means of this diffusion of knowledge, and all 
this complicated machinery of effort, a swiftness and 
a sweep of influence such as never before possible is 
brought within the reach of man. All this, however, 
all this accumulation of energy, of means of power, 
in all these spheres, has been accomplished in time. 

Such, then, is the content of time, and such its vital 
unity in all its hurrying flight. How it exalts our 
present position ! How it magnifies and illumines 
the future ! How it inspires to effort ! " Heirs of 
all the ages," we need not go into life to try all ex- 
periments, and make all tools for ourselves. Many 
questions, even of those about which multitudes are 
troubled to-day, were settled by the experience of hu- 
manity long ago ; and the effort of generations has 
discovered and produced agencies of all kinds for 
work. Let the young man, therefore, measuring his 
life by the meaning of all past time, remembering 
that he is living under the eye of the ages of past 
history, and acting for all future time, gather up all 
available products of past experience, and with lofty 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 61 

ideals, settled purpose, unwearying toil, bend all his 
powers toward the greatest, the noblest, possible 
achievement. 

III. 

On page 9 the statement was made that " the uni- 
verse of existence in which man is placed is an 
accordant thought-system." This is one of the mas- 
terly developments of modern investigation. All 
science is based upon and confirms the truth. No 
matter how the fact be accounted for, it remains un- 
questioned that the entire scheme of existence is com- 
bined into one organic whole; and all science has for 
its object the discovery and use of the component 
elements of this whole, as thus mutually related. 

At the basis of all, in what is termed the inorganic 
world, are the simple elements and forces of matter. 
All matter is composed of (at least) sixty-four ele- 
ments ; i.e., parts which as yet defy all attempts to 
analyze them into simpler parts. Oxygen, hydrogen, 
nitrogen, carbon, gold, iron, zinc, are a few of these 
elements. The entire physical world, and — so far 
as can yet be determined — all the material universe, 
are built up by combinations of these elements. Now, 
it is found that these elements are governed by exact 
and unchangeable laws 1 in their working and com- 

1 It is well to define lure exactly what is meant by the term 
" law," in this discussion, as it will frequently oceur. There is 
much loose talk about the "reign of law," as though law were a 
separate existence imposing its rule on matters This is a grave con- 
fusion of ideas, and Leads to much mischief. There are several ways 
in which the term "law" may be used. First, a mere sequence of 
events. Certain events are found to occur always in a specific order, 
or under definite conditions; and that sequence is the " law " of the 



68 THE GIST OF IT. 

bination. Each has certain inherent properties, which 
it always manifests under given conditions : e.g., ni- 
trogen will not support combustion; a flame put into 
a jar of it is almost instantly quenched. Again, in 
their combination each element has a fixed ratio and 
power of combination. In some instances an element 
will have several different powers of combination, but 
they are all multiples of one basal * power : e.g., com- 
mon ammonia, H 3 N, is the product of the combination 
of three molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of 
nitrogen ; the combining weight of nitrogen is 14.01 
times that of hydrogen, and so, in forming the com- 
pound, the parts are taken, by weight, in this propor- 
tion. Nitric acid, HN0 3 , is composed of one molecule 
of hydrogen, one of nitrogen, and three of oxygen , 
or, by weight, 1 part of hydrogen, 14.01 parts nitro- 
gen, 44.88 parts oxygen. Nitrous anhydride, N 2 3 , 
is made up of two molecules of nitrogen and three of 
oxygen ; by weight, 28.02 parts of nitrogen and 44.88 
parts of oxygen. 

events. Second, this uniformity in the occurrence of the events 
must have its cause in the action of some force or forces: this cause, 
though not understood, may be called the "law" of the events. 
Third, "law" may mean the exact measure and definition of the 
controlling force, as when gravitation is shown to be attraction be- 
tween bodies, exerted directly as the mass, and inversely as the 
square of the distance. Fourth, " law " may signify the relation he- 
tween several forces, which are combined with each other, and fitted 
to each other for special ends. Fifth, " law " may be used of some 
ahstract idea, necessarily derived from known facts, but itself a pure 
conception; e.g , the first law of motion. Here the term is used in 
the third sense: at a later stage in the treatise, the fourth meaning is 
also made use of. 

(This distinction of the meanings of " law " is admirably treated 
in the Duke of Argyll's Reign of Law, chap. 2.) 

1 Basal = primary, fundamental. 



TUE FACTS OF LIFE. 69 

This disposition to form compounds, and all its 
attendant phenomena, are embraced in the law of 
chemism, — chemical affinity. There are some very 
curious, unexplained problems in the operation of 
these elements. One of these is isomerism, — the 
fact that two compounds may have the same ele- 
ments in the same proportions, and yet manifest dif- 
ferent properties, as gum, cellulose, and starch, each 
C 12 H 10 O 10 , — twelve molecules of carbon, ten of 
hydrogen, and ten of oxygen. The difference is 
supposed to be due to a different arrangement of the 
particles. Allotropy is the manifestation of different 
properties by molecules of the same substance : thus, 
common oxygen is spoken of as 2 ; i.e., two atoms 
to the molecule. But ozone is also the pure gas 
oxygen, and its peculiar properties are explained by 
supposing that in it the molecule is 3 . 

Another very strange phenomenon is catalysis, — 
a case in which, in order to produce a certain chemi- 
cal change in a compound, another substance must be 
present in the operation ; and yet the work of that 
other substance is in no way perceptible, and when 
the operation is over, and it is removed, it is abso- 
lutely unchanged. When magnesium dioxide, Mn0 2 , 
and potassium chlorate, KC10 3 , are heated together, 
the oxygen is entirely removed from the potassium 
chlorate. But, although the action will not take 
place without the presence of the magnesium dioxide, 
it remains unchanged. 

Again, each element lias its preferences among the 
others, — will unite with Borne more readily than with 
Others, and with some, perhaps, not at all. Oxygen 



70 THE GIST OF IT. 

will unite with almost all the other elements. Ar- 
senic unites only with oxygen, hydrogen, chlorine, 
bromine, and iodine. None of these problems, how- 
ever, affect the primary statement, — that all the 
movements and combinations of these elements take 
place under fixed laws and specific conditions ; and, 
when the conditions are fulfilled for the production 
of any effect in their working, that effect necessarily 
follows, and may be accurately predicted. 

The forces of matter, or which operate in matter, 
are likewise subject to established laws and condi- 
tions, under which only, but under which always, 
they manifest themselves. The force of chemism, or 
chemical attraction, has been already referred to. 
Sound, heat, light, electricity, all are produced by 
vibrations in some transmitting medium. 

Sound is produced by the vibrations of the air or 
any other material substance through which it may 
pass, as water, wood, or iron, the vibration being car- 
ried from molecule to molecule in the medium. The 
amount of force necessary to produce a certain amount 
of vibration in a given medium, and the rate with 
which the vibration will travel through that medium, 
are fixed, and have been ascertained. Sound is car- 
ried more easily and rapidly through water than 
through the air, and through iron with greater ease 
and swiftness than through either air or water. The 
writer stood, one bright, calm summer morning, on 
the shore of Lake Michigan. Half a mile away a 
youth was seated on the end of a pier running fifty 
yards out into the water, fishing. His movements 
were only partially perceptible ; but through the water 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 71 

tli ere was borne, with great clearness, the sound of a 
mouth-organ which the boy was manipulating to the 
tune of "Home, Sweet Home," — probably to attract 
the fishes to his bait. The same amount of force 
which failed to carry the vibration through the air 
bore it easily through the water, and the proportion 
of this force is easily measured and fixed. 

Heat, Jight, and electricity, are produced outside our 
atmosphere by vibrations in the ether, — a highly at- 
tenuated form of matter filling the space between all 
worlds. 1 Whether the vibrations are in the same 
medium in our world is unknown ; but it is conjec- 
tured that the ether may permeate all other forms of 
matter, and be the universal medium of the trans- 
mission of vibratory force. However that may be, 
these forces are under necessary laws. Heat and 
light are produced by vibrations at right angles to 
the direction in which the force is moving. The two 
forces differ in the length of their vibrations, those of 
light being longer than those of heat; and the various 
colors are due to the rapidity of the light vibrations. 
Both these forces move in straight lines. In passing 
from a looser to a denser medium, or vice versa, they 
are deflected in direction in exact proportion to the 
difference of density in the two media and the angle 
at which the force enters the second medium, thus 
giving rise to the phenomena of refraction. When 
they meet a substance which will not admit of their 
passage, at all or only in part, the force is absorbed 
by the substance, or reflected back from it ; and here 
the same fact of necessity rules, for while all sub- 

1 P. 63. 



72 THE GIST OF IT. 

stances have not the same transmitting, absorbing, or 
reflecting power, yet in the case of each substance 
these powers or properties are unchangeable, and, in 
many instances, are definitely known. 

Electricity, while perhaps most obedient and adapt- 
able for man's use, is the least understood of all the 
forces. Enough is known, however, to demonstrate 
that it, too, is under the same rigid rule. It can be 
produced in any required amount, and in any specific 
form, by observance of the proper conditions. The 
telegraph, telephone, electric light, electroplating, 
electrotyping, all are applications of this force, 
wherein it is made to accomplish a definite and 
predicted work. 

So with the forces usually known as mechanical 
forces : the cohesion of particles of matter, either as 
the parts of one substance, like the particles of iron, 
or as of different substances, as the cohesion between 
the particles of glue and those of the substances it 
binds together ; the elasticity of substances, resulting 
from their cohesion, and manifested in various differ- 
ent forms, so that it is known just how much force 
must be applied, and at just what angle, to bring 
a certain quantity of a definite kind of matter into a 
specific position, as, to lengthen half an inch a rod of 
steel three feet long and half an inch in diameter ; 
the resistance offered to forces acting externally, — 
all these and other such forces are known to oper- 
ate under unvarying laws. Even gravitation, that 
strange influence 1 which we hardly dare term a 
force at all, acts between bodies on the certain law 

1 P. 54. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 73 

"directly proportionate to the mass, and inversely 
proportionate to the square of the distance." 

All the organization of the universe depends on 
the absolute immutability and inexorableness of these 
laws. If the force of gravitation were for an instant 
to be relaxed, the stars would rush from their orbits, 
every thing on their surfaces would be thrown into 
confusion, and wreck would result throughout all 
space. If iron and steel were sometimes solid, and 
again, under the same conditions exactly, would run 
like water, what use could be made of them ? Un- 
certainty in the operation of heat or electricity would 
stop all machinery, and silence all telegraphs. It is, 
of course, from one point of view, unfortunate, that 
when the pressure of steam in a boiler passes a cer- 
tain fixed point, depending on the condition of the 
metal, the resistance of the boiler is overcome, and it 
is hurled in fragments, carrying wreck and death in 
its course ; but, on the other hand, it is exceedingly 
fortunate, that, so long as the pressure does not reach 
that limit, the boiler will certainly not explode, and 
that the limit of resistance in any given case is so 
easily ascertained. All mechanical industry proceeds 
on this latter truth, and is possible only because of 
it. The building of houses, farming, and even pre- 
paring of food, all assume the absolute changelessness 
and certainty of the operation of these physical 
forces. 

Another principle is involved, which accounts for 
the great diversity, and oftentimes apparent freedom, 
of the operations of Nature. All results in Nature 
are produced by the adjustment of these necessary 



74 THE GIST OF IT. 

laws. For example, a suspension bridge is swung 
over Niagara. All the weight of the bridge — which 
is simply another term for the attraction of its parti- 
cles toward the earth's centre — is exerted to throw 
the bridge to the bottom of the river; and this is 
increased by the passage of objects over it, or the 
force of the wind. The cohesion of the particles 
with each other, and with the fastenings on each 
shore, operates to hold it in position. The bridge 
remains in place because of the counterbalancing of 
the two sets of forces. 

Again, hydrogen will not support life if inhaled , 
oxygen is the cause of all the combustion in the uni- 
verse, and would, if free to act, wrap the earth and 
air in a sheet of flame ; but the two, when combined 
in proper ratio, form water, which is essential to the 
life of the body, and is the deadly enemy of fire. 
Gravitation is a name for the action of two oppos- 
ing forces, — the centrifugal force, which, alone, would 
hurl all bodies away into the depths of space ; and 
the centripetal force, which, alone, would dash all 
bodies against the centre about which they are re- 
volving. The system of the universe is kept in 
equilibrium by the constant and perfect balancing of 
the two forces. 

The " Modoc " locomotive is made of ninety tons 
of metal, — iron, steel, and brass, — a weight which 
no known human contrivance could lift or move as 
" dead weight." But by the adjustment of parts, 
balancing of wheels and rods, and direction through 
it all of the force of steam, the engine flies over the 
rails at the rate of fifty miles an hour, dragging with 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 75 

it many times its own weight in loaded cars. All 
new inventions, as well as all present operations, are 
due to the discovery of new ways in which these 
forces can be adjusted. 

Yet it is to be remembered that all these adjust- 
ments are likewise in the region of certainty, though 
not of necessity. That is to say, there is no reason 
which makes it necessary for a man to combine and 
adjust physical materials and forces in such a way as 
to produce a locomotive ; or when it is produced, 
there is no inexorable compulsion which obliges him 
to open the valves for the movement of the steam, 
and start the engine on its journey. But when the 
adjustment is made, it is absolutely certain that the 
locomotive will be the result ; and it will move over 
the rails when the track is clear, just as certainly as 
the valves are opened, and the steam given free 
course through the parts of the machinery. While, 
if the adjustment be in any way varied, the result is 
changed. The locomotive cannot print newspapers, 
nor can the press weave cloth. 

A striking instance which illustrates the reign of 
necessity in these adjustments of physical elements, 
occurred some years ago at Revere, Mass. The Ban- 
gor express ran into the Beverly accommodation, as 
it stood at the station, passing half-way through one 
car before it stopped. The engineer was arrested, 
and tried for manslaughter. He affirmed that he 
was running on the schedule time, fifteen miles an 
hour: the prosecution charged that he was running 
thirty miles an hour. The weight of the express was 
furnished one of the professors in the Massachusetts 



76 THE GIST OF IT. 

Institute of Technology, who calculated the momen- 
tum of the train and the inertia of the car, and found 
that the momentum at fifteen miles an hour would 
be just enough to carry the express half-way through 
the car. At thirty miles an hour, the momentum 
would have carried it four times as far. The engineer 
was, of course, at once released. 

This furnishes the mechanism of the universe. 
These physical elements and forces, governed by 
necessary and unchangeable laws, but so related that 
they can be combined and adjusted to counterbalance 
and work with each other in the accomplishment of 
a great variety of results, are at the basis of all the 
operations of Nature, and give the material and con- 
ditions for all further activity. Now, other princi- 
ples are introduced to make use of this material. 

What, in its essence, life, 1 or vital force, is, human 
science has so far failed to discover. Its presence in 
a body, or disappearance from it, makes no perceptible 
difference in the weight of the body ; and all chemi- 
cal analysis fails to reveal it. But it is that some- 
thing, — force, energy, if you will, — which takes these 
elements and forces of the inorganic world, and 
weaves them into an organized whole, according to a 
definite and complete plan, so that, because of their 

1 " All the forces which build up a tree, or which are employed in 
the growth of an animal, or which move his limbs in obedience to 
his will, are without any exception the same physical forces which 
operate in the inorganic world. What is called life is simply a di- 
rective, architectonic influence which guides the physical forces in 
their action." (A. A. Hodge, D.D., Presbyterian Review, January, 
1886, p. 185.) For convenience of language, we shall speak of this 
influence, whatever it be, as the life-force. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 77 

adjustments, new and diverse operations are possible ; 
and which, further, builds the organism up to matu- 
rity, — following again a methodical plan, — removes 
from it all worn-out particles of matter, and replaces 
them with new, thus preserving it in perfect condition 
and working. When this life, this vital force, disap- 
pears, all the powers of the organism as such vanish; 
and it is resolved, under the operation of natural 
laws, into its component material elements, — this 
process being known as death. 

Two other facts must be noticed regarding the 
operation of life : — 

First, Life always is produced by life. Any mani- 
festation of life in a new organism, is the result of 
the action of life in some other organism. Many 
attempts have been made to develop life from dead 
matter; i.e., matter in which no life was present. 
But all such efforts have failed, and modern science 
is agreed that life can be produced only from pre- 
existing life. 

Second, Life manifests itself in different forms, and 
these forms are not interchangeable. All forms of 
organized matter — i.e., matter organized by life — 
can be reduced to a simple form, called protoplasm. 
All efforts to detect the differences in* the various 
forms of protoplasm have been unavailing. Yet it is 
unquestionably demonstrated that some difference 
exists. The protoplasm of the oyster always weaves 
an oyster, and nothing else; the protoplasm of the 
moss-rose produces invariably a moss-rose; while 
that of the white-oak just as certainly makes a 
white-oak, and, with no less precision, that of the 



78 THE GIST OF IT. 

lion and the man organize respectively a lion and a 
man. 

The first great form in which life manifests itself 
is that known as plant or vegetable life. Of this 
there are many different forms, there being over a 
hundred and twenty thousand distinct species of 
plant life now known, but all are united in one 
complete system. 1 From the lichens which veil the 
rugged bareness of the mountain rocks, the mosses 
which carpet the forests and shroud the prostrate 
forms 6f fallen trees, to the spreading banyan under 
whose leafy shade an army can find shelter, the 
towering palm whose fruit and sap furnish food and 
drink to the Indian, — all are combined into one 
accordant and progressive whole. 

Now, all this vegetable life serves a threefold pur- 
pose in the scale of life : — 

First, It preserves the condition of the air which 
is necessary for the support of the higher form of 
animal life. The air is a mixture of oxygen and 
nitrogen, in the proportion of twenty parts of the 
former to eighty of the latter, with some other gases 
present in minute quantities. This proportion is the 
one best adapted to animal life, and is found to be 
everywhere * the same, except when purely local 
causes vary it: specimens of air have been tested 
from Chimborazo, Mont Blanc, the deserts of Africa, 
the middle of the ocean, and from a height of twenty- 
two thousand feet above the earth's surface ; and in 
every instance the same proportion is found. But 

1 C. Dresser: Unity in Variety. McCosh : Typical Forms and 
Special Ends in Creation. E. H. Balfour: Class-Book in Botany. Etc. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 79 

all the countless multitudes of animals on the earth 
are constantly, as they breathe, changing this propor- 
tion ; for, when they inhale the air, the oxygen is 
taken from it, purifies the blood, and is carried along 
in it to all parts of the body; and, when the air is 
exhaled from the lungs, it goes out, not only robbed 
of its due proportion of oxygen, but also laden with 
various impurities, especially carbonic-acid gas — a 
deadly poison to all animal life. So rapid and so 
great is the change thus produced, that, if there were 
no counteracting influence, in a very little time the 
entire atmosphere of the earth would become so 
polluted that all animal life would be destroyed. 
Here comes in the work of the vegetable life. 
Plants, as well as animals, breathe oxygen, though in 
very small quantities. But, by a peculiar digestive 
process, they absorb from the air the carbonic-acid 
gas, and thus restore the equilibrium of the elements 
of the atmosphere. 1 

In the second place, vegetable life furnishes the 
bulk of food for animal life. All animals must have 
some inorganic materials for their support, which 
they take directly from the inorganic world : this is 
true especially of salt, air, and water. But in gen- 
eral, it is true, that while animal and plant organisms 
are both built up from inorganic, physical elements, 
yet the animal organism can assimilate those ele- 
ments only when they have first been wrought over 
in the vegetable life. The human body is composed 

1 There is an opportunity here for tho scientifically curious to 
determine whether, in the present condition <>f the air, plant and 
animal life are distributed in a necessary equality over the earth. 



80 THE GIST OF IT. 

of inorganic elements few in number, — oxygen, hy- 
drogen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, silicon, magnesium, 
iron, and some others. 1 But, if it be attempted to 
support the human organism by feeding to it these 
elements directly, decay and death quickly ensue. 
These elements must be taken up by the plant life, 
and wrought over into wheat, corn, potatoes, rice, 
apples, grapes, and such fruits ; and then the animal 
can feed on these products of vegetable chemistry, 
and weave the elements into its own physical being. 
The fact that many animals, like the lion, are wholly 
carnivorous, and others, like man, partially . so, does 
not affect the proposition. For, in these instances, 
the proof is only that there is a still higher complex- 
ity of organization, so that the inorganic elements 
must be worked over in both the vegetable and the 
animal life before these creatures can make use of 
them. 

A third great purpose served by the vegetable life 
is in providing additional material for the work of 
animal life. The rocky cave, hollowed out by the 
action of physical forces, of heat or water, furnishes 
the lion a den. The mole burrows through the soil, 
and constructs in the earth a home of wonderful in- 
tricacjr and beauty of architectural design. But the 
bird weaves its nest of grasses, straws, and other 
materials, produced by vegetable life. The beaver 
constructs its dams and homes from the wood given 
by the trees of the forest. Human civilization has 
been absolutely dependent on the timber which was 

1 Sulphur, phosphorus, chlorine, fluorine, potassium, sodium, 
lithium. (Carpenter: Physiology, p. 80.) 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 81 

fashioned into the ships of commerce, the bridges of 
highways, the buildings for trade and home life, and 
the furniture with which these are filled. 

Above the vegetable stands the higher form of 
animal life. Recent investigation shows that the 
two great departments shade almost imperceptibly 
into each other ; but yet the distinction is clear and 
unmistakable. No one would think of calling a 
horse a vegetable, or a cabbage an animal. A few 
considerations will show the superiority of this form 
of life. 

As has been shown, the work of all vegetable life 
is preparatory to that of animal life, and its products 
are used by the animals for their purposes. But, 
further, the plant is fixed in position. It cannot 
move from its place, either to gather food or to com- 
plete its own functions. It can only make use of 
what elements are brought within its reach ; and for 
the performance of some functions, like the fertiliza- 
tion of many plants, it is dependent on the action of 
the wind or of insects, birds, and other animals. 

Connected with this, is the fact of a much simpler 
mode of existence. The change of surroundings 
and habits, the building of homes, and all such 
operations which are common enough among animals, 
are, from the nature of the case, denied to the plant. 
The entire sphere of its development and occupation, 
though complete in itself, is on a lower plane than 
that of the animal. There are, to be sure, a few 
animals of the lowest forms, which are likewise 
stationary in position. Hut, in almost the whole 
animal world, there is this freedom of movement; 



82 THE GIST OF IT. 

and how marvellously it multiplies and enriches the 
play of life ! All Nature is brightened and made 
glad by the free movements of the living animals. 
The gambols of deer and lambs, the flight and sport 
of birds, are among the beautiful pictures of the 
world, and, besides their own enjoyment, have much 
to do with increasing the pleasure of man. 

Like the vegetable world, the animal world is also 
organized into one whole. 1 At the bottom are the 
protozoans, the forms of life which are on the border- 
line between the vegetable and animal, such as the 
present infusoria ; and, in geologic times, the nummu- 
lites, a microscopic form of life which so abounded 
that in some places limestone ridges ten thousand 
feet in thickness are formed, almost wholly of its 
remains, and from these comes the admirable nummu- 
lite limestone of commerce. Above this, the first 
distinctly marked form of animal life, are the radi- 
ates, so called because the organism radiates in 
structure from a common centre : the starfish and 
the coral polyps are instances of these. A higher 
form is that of the mollusks, animals like the snail 
and oyster, which have soft, inarticulated bodies. 
With the articulates, the next form in ascent, greater 
complexity of structure is developed. This includes 
the crustaceans, or animals with hard shells fitted to 
an articulated body, like the crab and lobster ; and 
insects, as bees, wasps, and dragon-flies. Highest of 
all are the vertebrates, animals that have a jointed 
backbone, which encloses the spinal cord, and about 

1 Professor L. Agassiz: Contributions to the Natural History of 
the United States, vol. i., Essay on Classification, etc. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 83 

which all the structure is formed. Fishes, frogs, 
birds, and all forms of mammals, as dogs, elephants, 
and monkeys, are specimens of the kinds of life 
embraced in this class. 

This completes the organization of the physical 
world. Through it all runs a connecting-line, from 
the simple elements and forces of matter up to the 
highest form of animal life. Each step prepares 
the way for the next higher ; and it, in turn, while 
using all below it, is itself preparatory to that which 
is above it. At the very summit of this system, man 
is placed. Living and working in a material universe, 
he must be in such connection with it as to enable 
him to accomplish proper results. 1 The body of 
man is, therefore, at the culmination of the physical 
organization of the world, and is so linked with 
every step in it as to be able to exert influence upon 
it. Composed of physical elements and forces, elabo- 
rately combined and delicately adjusted, it is subject 
to the laws of those forces and elements. As life 
weaves out of lifeless matter the cedar and the bear, 
so likewise from matter devoid of life it constructs 
the body of man. But no other living organism is 
so complex in its structure, so exquisite in its adjust- 
ments, or adapted to so great a variety of uses. 
Thus, the rule of man over Nature is rendered possi- 
ble;; and his richly gifted spirit, dwelling in, and 
operating through, a body which is perfectly adapted 
to its use, ;md i> the culmination of the organization 
of the materia] world, touches all parts of that world, 
and moulds them to its own purposes. 

i p. iff. 



84 THE GIST OF IT. 



IV. 



The philosophy of history is based upon the con- 
ception of development in national and race life ; 
that the race as a whole is working out some pur- 
pose, in which every nation of all times has a part. 
It becomes, then, a matter of importance to inquire 
at what point in this progress we are living. 

The ancient Oriental civilizations, as the Egyp- 
tian, Babylonian, and Persian, were, speaking roughly, 
absolute despotisms, in which the life of the nation 
was concentrated in the government and religion, — 
which were closely united, — and the interests of 
the individual were wholly merged in the national, 
or governmental, development. At one time they 
threatened to overrun Europe, and mould that into 
the same form of life ; but Grecian heroism, in this 
first great contest of civilizations, beat back and 
baffled the Asiatic. 

Grecian life developed the individual, and in all 
forms of culture, in physical development, language, 
philosophy, and the arts, reached the highest attain- 
ments known to unaided human powers. Human 
reason, working alone, never has excelled the achieve- 
ments of Grecian philosophy. No language, dead 
or living, in the world, can compare with Greek in 
richness, finish, and beauty. In sculpture the Greeks 
furnished the models for all subsequent time. In 
government they developed the idea of the integrity 
of the city, and, in large measure, the principle of 
federal union. Lacking, however, a true moral basis, 
having a religion whose inconsistencies and follies 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 85 

invited the sneer of the sceptic, and abashed the 
truly devout, it failed to attain permanency. Ere it 
fell, however, it was gathered up by Alexander the 
Great, and carried over all Western Asia to India, 
permeating and modifying all forms of social life. 

Like Greece, the Roman Government was founded 
on the individual, and its solid growth was due to 
the free equality of its sturdy farming-citizens. 
Rome was essentially a conquering nation, with a 
genius for government and law, both of which she 
marvellously developed; but, as her sovereignty ex- 
tended, the value of the individual declined. The 
ruler of Greece and the Orient, she was swayed by 
their ideas, and that in a debased form. Hence, with 
all the products of the life of the world at her com- 
mand, she concentrated all the nation's vitality into 
a demotic centralized government, which crushed 
the people into insignificance, and plunged herself 
into unutterable corruption. 

Meanwhile, in the little country of Palestine, there 
was being developed the religion which was destined 
to be so important an element in modern civilization. 
Jt was perfected just as the Roman Empire reached 
its highest grandeur: at a time when all the known 
world was under one settled government, when com- 
munication between all its parts was easy and safe, 
Greek was the prevailing language of the world, 
Jews and Jewish ideas were dispersed through all 
the nations, and the old national faiths had every- 
where lost their hold, and men were either seeking 
some new religion or settling into stolid scepticism. 
Taking advantage of all these circumstances, it 



8b THE GIST OF IT. 

quickly overspread the empire, becoming the state 
religion, and was thenceforward a potent factor in 
civilization. But society was not to be regenerated 
under the weight of its accumulated abuses. Another 
element was needed. Overthrow must prepare the 
way for new and better construction. 

Away in the North of Europe were the Teutonic 
peoples, the chief ancestors of the English, and the 
direct forefathers of the Germans and Dutch. With a 
rude civilization, they were remarkable for their honor, 
heroism, chivalry to woman, and for their dauntless 
spirit of individual liberty. From their overcrowded 
homes, pressed by the inrush of nations from North- 
ern Asia, they swept in multitudes over Roman 
Europe, subverting the old civilization, and occupy- 
ing the territory. 

Out of this confusion, modern civilization has been 
developed. The Christian Church lived through the 
struggle, subjecting the conquering nations to her 
sway. She unfortunately inherited and developed 
the same heartless spirit of centralization which 
ruined the Roman Empire ; and under her leadership 
the great fabric of feudalism was gradually built up, 
and was in turn replaced by despotisms, temporal 
and spiritual, as absolute as any of ancient times. 
This reached its climax in the darkness of the Middle 
Ages, when ignorance, superstition, cruelty, and 
wickedness, ran riot throughout all Europe, and man- 
kind seemed to have gone back to the worst days of 
even Babylonian corruption. 

All this time, however, the various elements of 
society were being worked over and assimilated. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 87 



Here and there were indications of better things. 
The Crusades brought Europe into contact with the 
East, and caused an influx of ideas and trade which 
awakened and broadened life. In Switzerland and 
Holland the battle for civil liberty was begun. 
When, at length, the revival of letters and the 
reformation of religion in the fifteenth century began, 
all Europe was roused to a new existence ; and, out 
of the protracted struggle and bloodshed that fol- 
lowed, our modern society has been evolved. In the 
last three hundred years, under the stimulus of dis- 
covery and invention, of commercial and philan- 
thropic enterprises, of social and political move- 
ments, the nations of Christendom have advanced 
with mighty strides, and are now powerfully im- 
pelling all heathen peoples along the same lines of 
progress. 

The problems yet unsolved in the unfolding of 
the race-life are many and various. Some of them, 
as socialism in politics, and pessimism 1 in philosophy, 
are dark and ominous in the prospect. The activity 
of the age is intense : and in every department of 
work, men are pressing forward with increasing 
energy, until, as has been strikingly said, the race 
of life is become so swift, that the runners tread on 
each other's heels ; and if a man stop but to lace his 
shoe, lie is trampled down and beaten in the contest. 

1 Pessimism is, in brief, the assertion that the world is a faihuv; 

evil, sin, and Buffering are predominant ami unavoidable; the prog- 

of events develops only increasing pain and sorrow; there .s 

no hope for humanity, and the only thing for man is to escape from 

life as quickly as possible. Sheer animalism and snieide are its 

results. 



88 THE GIST OF IT. 

Yet, in all this rush of conflicting ideas and pur- 
poses, the race is developing two great thoughts. 

The first of these is the brotherhood of man. The 
ancient Greeks regarded the rest of the world as 
barbarians, of an essentially inferior quality of make- 
up. Even among themselves the Spartan and the 
Theban disdained each other, and were both con- 
temned by the Athenian. This lack of brotherly 
feeling was universal. Every tribe or city or coun- 
try enclosed itself with a wall of exclusiveness, 
regarding itself as the salt of the earth, while the 
rest of men were despised as a race of inferior 
beings. 

As contrasted with this, the modern spirit is 
essentially cosmopolitan. Distinctions of national- 
ity, color, rank, sect, are being obliterated. The 
equality of all men in religious and civil life has 
been established, and the same idea is being applied 
in all the other relations of society. The natives of 
America, England, Spain, Turkey, India, South 
Africa, all meet on the recognized basis of a com- 
mon humanity. Commerce, religion, education, are 
everywhere battling the self-centered prejudices of 
men, broadening their conceptions, and developing 
their sympathies, as members of a united brother- 
hood. The almost complete extinction of slavery, 
and the great spread of missionary effort, are alike 
outgrowths of this idea. A similar result is the 
growth of such studies as comparative philology, 
mythology, religion, and law, wherein the aim is to 
discover and systematize the common elements 
which, under different conditions, have issued so 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 89 

variously. International alliances and organizations 
of all kinds are multiplying. 

Much yet remains to be done. It would be haz- 
ardous to assert the impossibility of a return of 
national seclusion and consequent barbarism. The 
feeling that wealth, education, social or political 
position, make their possessor superior to his fel- 
lows, and ruler over them, is still strong enough in 
many relations to work much injustice, and seri- 
ously retard individual and race development. 

But wonderful changes in this regard have been 
produced in the thought and life of men. The 
progress of civilization has lessened the apparent 
size of the earth, brought all its parts nearer together 
and into quick communication with each other, and 
made all men more and more mutually dependent. 
Out of this are necessarily generated a greater 
breadth of conception and fullness of sympathy, so 
that, consciously or unconsciously, the fact of the 
essential brotherhood of mankind is now everywhere 
recognized; and the thoughtful readily discern in its 
operation one of the great aids toward an ultimate 
abolition of all wrong distinctions, and the develop- 
ment of a universal spirit of equality and mutual 
helpfulness. ■ 

The second dominant thought of our modern life 
is the value of the individual. The brotherhood of 
man is a brotherhood of individuals. This, and not 
brotherhood, is the feature which constitutes the 
most striking contrast between the ancients and the 
moderns. There was a kind of brotherhood among 
the ancients; but with them all, the state rather 



90 THE GIST OF IT. 

than the individual man was the supreme idea. 
The rights and interests of the individual were 
absorbed in the state, and all his personal develop- 
ment was shaped with reference to its welfare. So 
completely did this idea dominate the minds of men, 
that the Spartans placed the whole life of the citir 
zens, even marriage, and the rearing and education 
of children, under the control of the government. 
Plato even, in his ideal state, goes so far as to advoT 
cate the abolition of family life, and the regulation 
of all the relations of the sexes by the civil author- 
ity. Hence, the development of individual life, the 
growth and expansion of men as particular identities, 
was impossible, unless they could in some way 
become identified with the state, as factors in its 
working. Except for a little time among the Greek 
cities which developed the idea of federation, in the 
earliest days of Rome, and in the opening history of 
the Jews, the mass of the people were regarded 
simply as a mass : the thought that each one of the 
population was a distinct identity, essentially equal 
to any other, and capable, under proper conditions, 
of limitless development, never was grasped. In 
these instances it was but crudely and partially 
understood. 

Now all is changed. The tendency of modern life 
is toward the development of the individual as such. 
A variety of causes operate to produce this result. 
The spirit of individual liberty is inherent in the 
Teutonic peoples. Protestant Christianity individu- 
alizes men, bringing each for himself to face and 
decide, on his personal responsibility, all moral issues. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 91 

As free political institutions have spread, this idea 
of individuality has grown with them. Liberty of 
thought, of speech, of conscience, trial by jury, the 
right of trial — couched in the rio-ht of habeas cor- 
pm — as opposed to unjust imprisonment, are all at 
the foundation of free government ; but they are all 
individual rights. The fact also, that office under a 
free government is open to all, and can be secured 
only by the suffrages of one's equals, has great 
influence in the same direction. In education, in 
scientific, mercantile, and professional pursuits, the 
tendency is all toward specialization. The scope of 
human knowledge has become so great that the mas- 
tery of it all is impossible ; while in all lines, the 
rewards offered to the accomplished specialist are 
increasingly inviting. All these and other influences 
work together for the perfection and elevation of 
men as individuals. 

While in this there is much danger, lest growth 
be unsymmetrical, or lest the tendency to individual- 
ization overcome the restrictive force of unified 
government and so produce anarchy ; yet these are 
but the unavoidable risks of all progressive activity, 
and in the fact of the development and culture of the 
individual lies the hope of the ultimate perfection of 
the race. The degradation of one man tends to 
degrade all, but just as truly the elevation of one 
raises others to a higher level ,* while in that eleva- 
tion is found a better and surer basis for that genuine 
and permanent brotherhood which enables many to 
work together for the betterment of all. 

We thus have found tin: answer to our second 



92 THE GIST OF IT. 

question. The sphere of man's activity is the earth, 
not merely in itself considered, but in its relations to 
the vast mechanism of the universe of which it forms 
a part ; the present, unrolling before each one con- 
tinually ; the system of material and animated earthly 
existence, which culminates in his own physical 
organization; and the unfolding of the life of the 
race to which he belongs, now moving toward the 
grand formation of a brotherhood of equal and 
equally developed individuals. 1 , For materials with 
which to work, there are laid before him all the con- 
tents of past time, its records of the thought and 
activity of the men who have preceded him, of their 
achievements, and of the means of power which they 
have accumulated; the scheme of Nature, whether 
as the elements and forces of the inorganic world, or 
the various forms of vegetable and animal life, with 
all of which he is brought into such connection as to 
be able to govern and fashion it to his will ; and his 
own race, striving, like himself, for some end, and 
responsive to his influence. 

Thus, with the universe of time and space in which 
to move, and the universe of matter and of mind 
with which to operate, there is boundless opportunity 
for his accomplishment. Up to the measure of his 
capabilities, nothing but his own will puts restraint 
on his efforts, or limits his attainments. The whole 
field is open before him ; and, if he but wills to per- 
form, no one can tell what even the humblest may 
find himself able to do. From this point of view, 
the grandest type of man is he who aims to secure the 

i Sorley: Ethics of Naturalism, p. 290. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 93 

largest and best knowledge and control of all 
the factors involved in his situation, of all facts of 
history and science in every region of truth, and 
uses them all for the exertion of the widest possible 
influence, and the achievement of the greatest possi- 
ble purposes, in the evolution of the noblest individual 
and race life. 

We must now consider the origin of man and his 
surroundings. 



94 THE GIST OF IT. 



CHAPTER III. 

WHENCE AM I ? 

The disposition to attribute all observed facts and 
events to some cause, and to seek to know that cause, 
is inherent in the human mind, and rises spontane- 
ously whenever occasion offers. When examining 
any curious piece of machinery, or rare bit of en- 
graving or sculpture, the question inevitably comes 
up, Who contrived this machinery? who made the 
engraving? and we speculate and dream as to the 
character, habits, methods, and all other characteris- 
tics, of the artist or inventor. 

We know, and cannot be reasoned out of our con- 
viction, that every thing bearing marks which we 
have learned to recognize as indications of human 
workmanship, is, in fact, the product of human power. 
A book goes from the press, and is read by many 
who never have seen the author, or even, perhaps, 
known one who has looked upon him ; but every one 
believes the book to be the product of a human 
mind, and each forms his opinion of the writer. The 
scientist finds, scores of feet under the surface of the 
earth, a few pieces of broken pottery, a stone 
hatchet, or an almost illegible tablet, and instantly 
forms the conclusion that man has been about that 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 95 

place ; that these are man's work ; and he falls to 
imagining who made these relics, and how long ago 
that worker lived. 

The same principle holds in dealing with criminals. 
In man}' instances hardly a trace is left of the mur- 
derer or robber ; but, because some one must have 
done the deed, the skilled detective or lawyer follows 
the smallest clues, until the villain is detected and 
punished. In the material world the same thing is 
to be observed : for when in the woods we find a 
curious nest or cocoon, we at once consider what 
bird could have woven the one, or by what cater- 
pillar the other was constructed ; and if we find 
some new growth, or strange piece of workmanship, 
our desire is aroused to learn by what animal or by 
what form of plant life it could have been made. 

In the inorganic world, the principle is even more 
visible. One of the most striking instances of this 
is in the case of our modern Signal Service, whereby 
the courses, velocities, and force, of storm-currents 
are watched and determined, and timely notice given 
so that precautions against them may be taken. The 
idea of causation existing in the mind leads to the 
grasp of the fact of causation in the outer world, 
and so even these seemingly chance occurrences are 
understood and classified. In all thought and action 
of the child or mature man, the idea is constantly 
acted upon that every event must have a cause. 

Now, a few further characteristics of this idea 
must here be noted. It has been spoken of as uni- 
versal and spontaneous. It arises naturally in the 
mind, and all men act upon it. This, however, is 



96 THE GIST OF IT. 

not all. It is to be also observed that our idea 
of cause or causation arises from our observation of 
change. If there were no movement or action in 
the world, if both within and without us a dead 
stagnation reigned, no thought of causes would ever 
arise. But all things are in constant change. Day 
and night, cloud and sunshine, cold and heat, seeding 
and harvest, follow each other continually ; and we 
look for the causes of these changes. Because of 
these changing events we are roused to look for some 
cause, something to which we may attribute the 
change. 

It is, then, incorrect to say that we are sure that 
every thing must have a cause. If, in the entire field 
of existence, any thing can be found which is wholly 
changeless, and unaffected by any outside agency, we 
could not tell, and should hesitate to say, whether it 
might not have been its own cause. When, now, we 
state the proposition in this way, — Every thing that 
begins to be, must have a cause, — we are on safe 
ground; for we are no surer of our own existence 
than we are that every thing which comes into being, 
every effect which is produced, every event which 
takes place, is preceded by something upon the action 
of which its own being is vitally dependent, and 
without which it could not be. The rain falls be- 
cause the atmosphere is laden with moisture and its 
temperature is so lowered that the moisture is pre- 
cipitated. Iron is hard because the attraction of its 
molecules for one another packs them very closely 
together : it melts and runs because great heat over- 
comes the mutual attraction of the molecules, and 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 97 

separates them. That rain should fall, or iron be 
hard or fluid, for no reason, with no cause, is incon- 
ceivable. 

The essential thing in this idea of causation is 
power, efficiency. The stone lying in the street could 
not be the cause of Mozart's melodies, for it pos- 
sesses no power which could produce such an effect. 
The same stone may be sent by a boy crashing 
through a window-glass ; but the power that drives 
it through the air, against and through the glass, is 
in the arm of the boy who throws it, and not in the 
stone, whose causal efficiency consists in its being 
harder than the glass, and so better able to withstand 
the effect of the collision. Hence, we rightly con- 
sider the boy the cause of the accident, say that he 
broke the glass, and punish him accordingly ; al- 
though the full cause was the action of the boy plus 
the superior hardness of the stone plus the force with 
which the stone struck the glass. 

When we seek the cause of any event, certain 
guiding principles must be remembered : — 

First, The explanation must supply a real cause ; 
i.e., something that possesses power, efficiency, so as 
to be capable of producing an effect. Day always 
follows night, but night is not therefore the cause of 
day. It is equally true that night always follows 
day. The real cause of their succession is found in 
the rotation cf the earth on its axis. 

Second, The explanation must supply an adequate 
cause, — one that is sufficient in its working to pro- 
duce the effect. To attribute " Paradise Lost" to a 
boy of ten years would be absurd. That sublime 



98 THE GIST OF IT. 

poem can be ascribed only to a mature and rarely 
gifted mind. 

Third, The explanation must supply an appropri- 
ate cause. The man who should ascribe the Wash- 
ington Monument to volcanic action would be as 
certainly judged a lunatic as he who asserted that 
the massive domes and glittering spires of the majes- 
tic Alps were shaped and erected by the hand of 
man. 

Fourth, If possible, the explanation should supply 
a known cause. It is conceivable that the pottery 
found seventy-two feet below the surface of the Nile 
Valley in 1854 was made on that level, and after- 
wards covered up by the action of natural forces. 
But since it is known that such articles will sink in 
loose mud, and that during the time of overflow the 
soil in the valley is of that character, it is better to 
assume this as the cause of the pottery being at such 
a depth. That this explanation is the true one was 
shown, when, at a greater depth in the same valley, 
a brick was found bearing the stamp of Mohammed 
Ali, who reigned in A.D. 1808. 

Fifth, The explanation must supply a cause whicji 
will account for all the facts. The effect may be due 
to a combined action of several causes ; as in the 
case of the breaking of the window-glass, which 
resulted from the operation of three distinct causes. 
Or, one great cause may operate through a number 
of second causes : as in a great machine-shop, where 
many different pieces of machinery are kept in 
motion by a system of revolving belts, pulleys, and 
shafts; but they are all kept in motion by the steam 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 99 

generated from the water in the boiler by the fire 
underneath it. 

With these preliminaries in mind, we come to the 
problem of this chapter : Given, man, with his mar- 
vellous nature, and the universe in which he lives, 
with all its wonderful resources and adaptations; 1 
what is the cause of man and the universe of which 
he forms a part? How did it come into its present 
condition? Had it an origin? If so, what or Who 
is its Originator? 

Previous to the rise of modern science, it was some- 
times claimed that the universe had existed in its 
present form eternally. That notion, however, is 
now wholly exploded. Not only has geology proved 
and unfolded the development of the earth from a 
time when it was unfit for any kind of life, but astro- 
nomical chemistry, physics, and mathematics, have 
shown that the universe itself had a beginning, and 
will have an end. All tenable theories of the uni- 
verse now found on these conclusions: and dark 
pictures are drawn by men of science, of the final 
destruction of all the vast scheme of worlds floating 
in space ; while some even attempt to calculate the 
date of the yet far-off catastrophe. 

Some would fain make us believe that though this 
universe is not eternal, yet it is the outgrowth of one 
preceding, and that in time it will be resolved into its 
elements, and another evolved from those parts. We 
are told that this process has been eternal, — that for 
cycles upon cycles of ages one universe after another 
has developed from the state of nebulous fire-mist, 
1 Chaps, i. and ii. 



100 THE GIST OF IT. 

reached perfection, and through myriads of years re- 
turned to its original condition. But when did the 
process begin? To asbert an endless succession of 
events, with no great fundamental cause upon which 
they all rest, is so unphilosophical as to be inconceiv- 
able. It violates the essential idea of causation ; 
namely, that every thing which begins to be, must have 
a cause. That which produces an effect, but is itself 
the effect of something which preceded it, does not 
and can not satisfy the mind's idea of causation. Sup- 
pose this present universe is the successor of one be- 
fore it, and that that one followed on another which 
preceded it, and so on. Each universe is simply one 
in a chain of successive and equally dependent phe- 
nomena, and the entire chain hangs on — itself. The 
constitution of the human mind is such that it refuses 
to rest in such an explanation. The chain must have 
a beginning, and must depend on something ; while 
that basal something must be itself eternal, — the 
effect of no cause, but self-existent, and so the origi- 
nal cause of all effects. 

It is therefore settled, as a positive conclusion of 
modern science, that the universe had a beginning, 
and owes its existence to some eternal, self-existent 
cause. Another fact is equally a deliverance of sci- 
ence, — the cause of the universe is one. The uni- 
verse is, from every part, bound and organized into 
one rational and complete system, and bears through- 
out the evident marks of unity, or oneness, of origin. 
Its cause, then, whatever it be, must be one, self- 
existent, and eternal. 

Four hypotheses arc advanced regarding the nature 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 101 

of this one, self-existent, eternal cause of the universe. 
It is, first, asserted that matter is, in its essential 
nature, eternal, and competent to evolve the entire 
mechanism of existence. Again, force is affirmed to 
be the only true solution of the problem. A further 
hypothesis is that of pantheism, which claims the 
belief in a God, but identifies Him with the universe, 
so that, u All Existence = God." Lastly, theism in- 
sists that the only true explanation is found in the 
idea " that the universe owes its existence, and con- 
tinuance in existence, to the reason and will of a self- 
existent Being, Who is infinitely powerful, wise, and 
good." * Each of these must be briefly considered. 



Matter is everywhere the most obvious form of 
existence to the ordinary observer ; and hence it is 
natural that it should be supposed to contain the ex- 
planation of all things, — a cause able to produce all 
the phenomena of the universe. The earliest Greek 
speculations about the origin of the universe were 
based on this supposition. Thales, the father of 
Greek philosophy, who lived about 600 B.C., endeav- 
ored to show that water is the original element, and 
that all forms of existence are produced by its rare- 
faction into steam and air, or condensation into mud 
and rock. A little later, Anaximenes undertook to 
account for all things by a like process in the changes 
of air. Heraclitus assumed fire as the original ele- 
ment, from which all oilier things are formed. Em- 
pedocles claimed that earth, water, air, and fire are 

i Flint: Theism, p. 18. 



102 THE GIST OF IT. 

all original and fundamental elements. Democritus 
went farther, and claimed that matter is composed of 
an infinite number of minute, indivisible, eternal, 
parts, or atoms, alike in quality, but differing in size 
and form, by whose combination the entire universe 
was made. These atoms were supposed to be falling 
through space in straight lines, when, by some neces- 
sary law of their being, they swerved from the per- 
pendicular, struck against each other, and formed a 
multitude of chance combinations, out of which the 
present phases of existence gradually developed. 

Modern science agrees with Democritus in affirm- 
ing the existence of the atom as the ultimate form of 
matter, so far as can now be determined. Modern 
materialism agrees with him in the claim that, from 
these original atoms, acting simply under laws inher- 
ent in their own nature, without any intervention 
of any outside agency, all forms of existence were 
wrought out. But, in this assertion, modern materi- 
alism is utterly unscientific, as the following consid- 
erations will abundantly show. 

The materialistic hypothesis rests upon three prop- 
ositions, whose united truth is vital to the entire 
system. These are, that matter is self-existent and 
eternal ; that matter has one ultimate, basal form ; 
that matter possesses potencies such as to produce, 
in their development, the entire sphere of existences. 
The failure to substantiate any one of these positions 
vitiates the hypothesis. See, then, if they will stand 
the test of scientific discovery. 

Is matter eternal? All forms of matter can be 
resolved, by chemical analysis, into minute parts 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 103 

known as molecules; 1 and observed phenomena show 
unquestionably that these are composed of smaller 
parts, to which the name of atoms is given. The 
atom is, so far as can be determined, the smallest, 
the ultimate, form of matter. Is, then, the atom eter- 
nal ? All speculation as to the nature of the atom 
is exceedingly vague. It is claimed that the atom is 
eternal, and in all its characteristics unchangeable. 
But no chemist can put his hand on the atom. It 
eludes all analysis ; and its existence is known only 
by certain changes in molecules, which can be ex- 
plained only on the assumption of such an ultimate 
part. There are two hypotheses concerning the na- 
ture of the atom. One of these — Boscovitch's — . 
needs no mention at this point, for it explains the 
atom as merely a center of force, a mathematical 
point ; and, as such a supposition changes entirely all 
conceptions of matter as distinguished from force, 
the truth of the hypothesis would at once end the 
notion of the eternity of matter. It is hence irrele- 
vant here. 

The other hypothesis is the one proposed by the 
late Sir William Thomson, one of the greatest of 
modern physicists and mathematicians. He supposes 
that the ether filling all space is a perfect fluid, is 
absolutely devoid of friction in all its parts, is homo- 
geneous throughout, and cannot be compressed. The 
atoms are minute vortex-rings, such as compose the 
rings of smoke sometimes thrown out by a locomo- 
tive ; and these vortex-rings, once in motion, would 
continue whirling in a frictionless fluid forever. The 

i P. 68. 



104 THE GIST OF IT. 

difficulty with this hypothesis, when one attempts to 
use it to substantiate the eternity of matter, is, that, 
in such a fluid, there is no reason for the commence- 
ment of the rotation. It may be granted that, when 
once t in motion, the rings would continue whirling for- 
ever ; but, unless some outside agency started the 
movement, the rotation never could begin. 

To meet this difficulty, it is sometimes claimed that 
the ether is not a frictionless fluid ; that its parts are 
not perfectly homogeneous, and so cause friction 
among themselves. This would account for the 
origin of the vortex-rings ; for in such a fluid, there 
must be movement, and this movement might gen- 
erate such rotating rings. But now another trouble 
arises. Such an atom, whirling in such a fluid, would 
be subjected to friction. The smallest conceivable 
amount of friction in the fluid necessary to generate 
the whirling motion, would continue after the motion 
was started, and, in fact, be intensified by it. But 
all friction means waste ; and so, in process of time, 
the atom would be actually worn away by the fric- 
tion, and would return to the fluid. 

The hypothesis, then, fails in both forms. If the 
fluid is frictionless, some outside agency must set 
the atom in rotation : if the fluid is a friction-fluid, 
the atom will wear out, and be re-absorbed in the 
fluid. Either result is disastrous to the eternity of 
matter as composed of vortex-atoms. 1 



1 It is to be remembered, to avoid misunderstanding, that Sir 
William Thomson proposed his hypothesis as an explanation of the 
nature of the atom, without any reference to the idea of the eternity 
of matter. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 105 

Add to this the statement of prominent physicists, 
that the nature of matter proves it to have been con- 
structed. There is no higher authority on such 
questions than the late Professor Clerk-Maxwell ; 
and he says, " None of the processes of Nature, since 
the time when Nature began, have produced the 
slightest difference in the properties of any molecule. 
We are therefore unable to ascribe either the exist- 
ence of the molecules, or the identity of their proper- 
ties, to the operation of any of the causes which we 
call natural. On the other hand, the exact quality 
of the molecule to all others of the same kind gives 
it, as Sir John Herschel has well said, the essential 
character of a manufactured article, and precludes 
the idea of its being eternal and self-existent. Thus, 
we have been led, along a strictly scientific path, very 
near to the point at which science must stop. Not 
that science is debarred from studying the external 
mechanism of a molecule which she cannot take to 
pieces, any more than from investigating an organism 
which she cannot put together. But, in tracing back 
the history of matter, science is arrested when she 
assures herself, on the one hand, that the molecule 
has been made; and, on the other, that it has not 
been made by any of the processes we call natural." 

Professor Flint, who quotes this passage, 1 concludes, 
"I believe that no reply to these words of ProfessoT 
Clerk-Maxwell is possible from any one who holds 
the ordinary view of scientific men as to the ultimate 
constitution of matter. They must suppose every 
atom, every molecule, to be of such a nature, to be 
i Theism, pp. 113, 114. 



106 THE GIST OF IT. 

so related to the others and to the universe generally, 
that things may be such as we see them to be ; but 
this their fitness to be built up into the structure of 
the universe, is a proof that they have been made fit, 
and, since natural forces could not have acted on 
them while not yet existent, a supernatural power 
must have created them, and created them with a 
view to their manifold uses." 

The Duke of Argyll puts the case clearly when he 
says, 1 " In the light of Chemistr} r the Atom comes out 
as the centre and focus of energies and powers the 
most complicated and the most subtle that exist in 
Nature, — so complicated and so subtle indeed, that 
the utmost resources of chemical and physical re- 
search are unable as yet to give of them any thing like 
a complete or even an intelligible account. In the 
first place, the Atom is not one thing, but many 
things. Each of the elementary substances has its 
own separate Atom, with its own separate size, its 
own separate weight, and its own separate properties. 
In the second place, these properties are not abso- 
lute, but strictly relative to the corresponding prop- 
erties of the Atoms of other substances which may 
be contiguous. Thus, the Atom of oxygen is totally 
different from the Atom of carbon, and the nature 
of the difference consists, in so far as we can under- 
stand it at all, not only in differences of size and 
weight, but even more essentially in different dynamic 
relations of attraction which these elements bear to 
each other, and to the Atoms of other substances." 

To all this it is replied that such argument proves 

i Unity of Nature, p. 129. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 107 

simply the non-eternity of matter in its present form ; 
that it does not affect the claim that the atom itself 
is developed from some primitive form, as the ether ; 
and that this primitive form is eternal and self-exist- 
ent. For proof of this sweeping assertion, we are 
pointed to the doctrine of the indestructibility of 
matter, which is interpreted to mean that a certain 
amount of matter has existed in the universe of space 
from all eternity, and that no part of this matter can 
by any means whatever be totally destroyed. The 
form may be changed, as when ice melts into water, 
and vanishes in steam ; but no particle of the matter 
can by any possibility be blotted out of existence. 

Now, this is an illegitimate extension of an estab- 
lished scientific theory. Indestructibility of matter 
means, and means only, that matter, as at present 
constituted, cannot be destroyed by any means which 
man can use, and is not destroyed in any of the pro- 
cesses of Nature. But it is evident that the entire 
universe of matter might have been created just as it 
is, with its present constitution. If this was done, 
then it inevitably follows, that, while this produced 
matter cannot be destroyed by any of its own ener- 
gies or processes, yet the power which gave it being 
can annihilate it at will. To affirm the development 
of matter in its present form from some more ele- 
mentary state, is to build on pure conjecture. 
Whether matter be atomic or dynamic, it is, and it is 
of definite characteristics. We have no knowledge 
of it in any oilier form, and no basis on which to 
reason regarding its character or existence outside of 
its present constitution. To assume such a priini- 



108 THE GIST OF IT. 

tive condition of matter, only puts the question a 
step farther back ; for that form, be it ether or what 
not, equally demands some explanation of its being. 
To assert the indestructibility of this supposed prior 
form as a proof of its eternity, is to beg the whole 
question ; and this is, of course, inadmissible in scien- 
tific thinking. 

Further, an eternal being must be independent, 
self-existent, the one ultimate cause and ground of 
all being. The assumption of more than one eternal 
being is in violation of the law of parcimony of 
causes. But a self-existent being must be self-active 
and free, originating and exerting power by virtue of 
its own inherent spontaneity. Matter is utterly 
devoid of these properties, and manifests the contra- 
dictory properties of inertia and necessity. Matter, 
therefore, cannot be self-existent. But these two 
ideas of eternity and self-existence of being are in- 
separably connected. They stand or fall together. 
The idea of a self-existent being which is not also 
eternal, is inconceivable. If there ever was a time 
when it did not exist, it must have brought itself 
into existence, have created itself. Such a statement 
is obviously absurd. A nonentity could never be- 
come an actual existence. Any affirmation about 
power in a non-existent thing is self-contradictory in 
the very statement. If there be any power in it, 
even in potency and not in action, it is thereby 
proven to belong to the sphere of actual existences. 

The conclusion, therefore, unavoidably results, that 
the claim of the eternity of matter is not only un- 
proven by modern science, but is also in direct oppo- 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 109 

sition to the greatest discovery and best thought of 
the scientific world. 

What about the unity of matter? Some men 
insist that all forms of matter are derived from one 
basal form, as hydrogen. There is, of course, no 
objection to a man's imagining any explanation of 
things he pleases, provided he distinctly presents and 
uses it as simply imagination. But when men are 
reasoning on scientific principles, and publishing what 
they esteem scientific truths, it is right and necessary 
to hold them to the facts in the case. Now, the 
hypothesis of the oneness of all matter — i.e., that all 
forms are developed from some one original form — 
is pure conjecture to begin with, and is in direct 
opposition to the discoveries and tendencies of 
science. 

There are now recognized sixty-four fundamental 
elements, which defy all attempts to resolve them, 
and give evidence of being simple forms. The same 
elements make up the meteors and aerolites which 
fall upon the earth. Spectrum analysis shows that 
the distinctions of these forms exist in all the stars 
of space whose light can so far be analyzed. The 
distinguishing properties of these various forms are 
sharply defined. No common property which affords 
a basis for their unity appears in them all. Hydro- 
gen is taken as the basis in calculating their combin- 
ing weights; but the fractional and heterogeneous 
relations of the various weights forbid the inference 
that this basis is other than an arbitrary, though use- 
ful, assumption. Worst of all, — for the hypothesis, 
the tendency is t<> increase the number of elements: 



110 THE GIST OF IT 

♦ 

five or six substances, additional to the sixty-four, 
seem now likely to win a place in the list of primary 
forms. How soon, at that rate, shall we reach the 
one original form ? A man may indulge the dream 
of the ultimate resolution of all the elements into 
one ; but when he puts forth his dream as truth, or 
as an indication of future discovery, he is reasoning 
flatly athwart the facts, and immolating his scientific 
on the altar of his aesthetic genius. 

Professor TyndalFs poetic vision, uttered some 
years ago, and widely circulated since, in which he 
professed himself able to discern " in the atom the 
promise and potency of all terrestrial life," was suffi- 
ciently vitiated by the fact that the address, of which 
it formed the conclusion, was made to show that life 
never, in the whole range of scientific knowledge, 
has been produced from any thing but life; and that, 
in the veiy sentence in which the words quoted 
occur, he affirmed that there was no evidence which 
afforded the slightest ground to hope that science 
would ever be able in the future to develop life and 
organization from matter devoid of life. Still, the 
notion is in some respects an attractive one, and 
finds not a few followers. In its fully developed 
form, it becomes the materialistic evolution hypothe- 
sis, which is that matter possesses in potency all the 
properties manifested by all kinds of existences, and 
that out of the original nebulous condition of matter, 
whirling in space, all these potencies were gradually 
and successively evolved ; and that in the entire pro- 
cess, even in the constitution of the matter itself, no 
outside agency of any kind operated. This is a very 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. Ill 

different thing from the hypothesis that evolution is 
the name for a process or plan according to which an 
intelligent personality carried on a work of creation : 
with this form we have here nothing to do. 

The hypothesis is full of difficulties, and open to 
numerous objections. Its prevalence is, in large 
measure, due to the fact that it contains a grain of 
truth. There has undoubtedly been a process in the 
unfolding of the history of the universe ; and in that 
process there has been, on the whole, an orderly, suc- 
cessive, development. Yet this is a very different 
thing from the assertion that in the simple elements 
and forces of the inorganic world, all the universe 
exists in potency, and it is all developed under the 
operation of necessary laws which derive their exist- 
ence, not from some outside power which has stamped 
them upon these forces and elements, but from the 
elements and forces themselves. A few, only, of the 
more striking difficulties of this hypothesis can here 
be noted. 

In the first place, the hypothesis necessarily assumes 
the eternity and self-existence of matter. But these 
assumptions have been shown unscientific. If matter, 
in evolution, is the cause of the universe, it must be 
self-existent and eternal. If, however, it is neither 
eternal nor self-existent, it owes its own being to the 
action of some outside power, and so must waive its 
claim to be the first and fundamental cause. 

In the second place, the hypothesis attributes to 
matter properties which there is not a shadow of 
proof to show that it possesses. If life, intelligence, 
will, are evolved from matter, they must exist in 



112 THE GIST OF IT. 

matter. In philosophic language, the involution 
must equal the evolution ; i.e., only that which is 
already in a thing can be developed out of it. This 
hypothesis asserts that all plant and animal life, even 
the human mind itself, with its powers of knowing, 
feeling, and willing, have been developed out of the 
physical elements and forces of the inorganic world ; 
that the essential nature of these forces and elements, 
oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, heat, light, electricity, and 
the rest, is such that they necessarily form the com- 
binations which develop all the phenomena of exist- 
ence. What proof, then, is there of the hypothesis ? 
The first step in the process is that of the develop- 
ment of life from not-living matter. How is this to 
be done ? No truth of modern science is more cer- 
tainly established than that life proceeds only from 
pre-existing life. 1 The chemist, in his laboratory, can 
combine all the elements in just the proportions in 
which they are in the protoplasm. But by no possi- 
ble means can he generate that action, that movement, 
in the protoplasm which shows the presence of life. 
So futile have been all attempts to do this, that the 
effort has been wholly abandoned ; and it is now 
accepted as a scientific axiom, that, for the production 
of life, there must be pre-existing life. It is not sup- 
posed, by men of scientific worth, that any combina- 
tion of purely inorganic, or not living, elements and 
forces, will ever be able, without the action of exist- 
ing life, to generate from itself a living entity. But 
if matter is now devoid of such properties, and if 
there is no reason to suppose that in the future it will 

i P. 77. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 113 

become possessed of them, on what ground are we to 
believe that it has in the past had such powers ? The 
assertion that pure matter did some time in the past 
what it cannot now and never will be able to per- 
form, has not a shred of proof on which to rest, and 
is utterly unscientific. No evidence is adduced to 
show that matter has undergone any change by which 
it has been deprived of any of its properties ; and, 
while such proof would relieve the present difficulty, 
it would show that some external and superior power 
has acted upon matter, and thus overthrow the entire 
hypothesis. 

Nor is this all. The discoveries of geology testify 
that the matter of the earth was once in such a con- 
dition, under the action of intense heat, that life 
could not possibly exist in it. As the essential attri- 
butes of a substance are not changed by any trans- 
formation which the substance undergoes, so long 
as it retains its identity, and as all evidence goes 
to show that the prrysical forces and elements were 
identical then with what they are now, the assump- 
tion that matter could of itself develop life must 
be dismissed as without any foundation whatever. 
All hypotheses as to the introduction of life into the 
earth, when it reached a condition in which it could 
support life, are entirely foreign to the point at issue. 
Such explanations surrender the whole question ; and, 
besides, the nebular hypothesis necessarily involves 
tin; fact that all the matter in the universe has in its 
history passed through a stage wherein it was wholly 
incapable of sustaining life in even the simplest 
forms. It is evident, therefore, that at this first step 



114 TBE GIST OF IT. 

the hypothesis of materialistic evolution is fatally 
defective. 

The hypothesis does not satisfactorily account for 
the adjustments of physical forces and elements 
whereby the universe is built up, 1 and is even more 
unfortunate in its attempt to explain those adjust- 
ments in the case of animated beings. Every living 
organism is composed of parts, or organs, distinct in 
structure and function, but mutually dependent, and 
combined into one whole. Each part, or organ, is 
adapted to the others, and to the general character 
of the entire structure ; and the whole organism is 
so suited to the sphere in which it lives, — earth, air, 
water, valley, mountain, — as to be able to live under 
those conditions. Thus, in the body of man the 
different parts and organs have each its own pecul- 
iar structure, exactly adapting it to a special func- 
tion. The trunk forms a large and convenient cavity 
for the vital organs ; the legs and feet are for support 
and locomotion ; the arms and hands for numberless 
uses ; the heart, to pump the blood through all the 
veins and arteries; the lungs, to admit oxygen to 
the blood, and throw off impurities ; the stomach, 
to digest food. In addition to this, each part, or 
organ, is constructed with reference to all the others, 
so that the whole constitutes one body, with a unity 
of structure and function. Lastly, the body is ex- 
actly adapted to the outside world, so that its exist- 
ence is rendered possible, and it is able to operate 
upon and with the material world. This is but a strik- 
ing instance of a fact common to all forms of life. 

i Pp. 73-75. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 115 

Now, this hypothesis affirms that all these exact 
and marvellous adjustments, in so large a number 
of different beings, are produced in this way : that 
inorganic matter developed some most elementary 
form of life ; that this, under varying conditions, 
developed, by gradual changes, multitudes of other 
forms ; some of these forms were adapted to the 
conditions under which they lived, others were not; 
life was a battle, a struggle for existence, and in that 
struggle the forms best adapted to the conditions sur- 
vived, and became perpetuated. Aside from the fact 
that life is the cause of organization, not its result, 
there are three special obstacles to this hypothesis. 

First, It requires limitless time for its operation. 
The variations from the one original type were by 
very small gradations, and so almost endless ages 
were required for the development of the present 
diverse forms ; but the history of the earth written 
in the rocks, while affording time for great progress, 
forbids the conception of incalculable ages necessary 
to this hypothesis. 1 

Second, According to the hypothesis, each organ 
and each part in a body were gradually developed 
through successive attempts to their present form ; 
and the inter-action of the function of the part, and 
the surroundings in which it was placed, so devel- 
oped it. But tins overlooks three facts. 

First, The parts and organs arc often so intimately 
connected, that any variation in one of them must 

1 Accepted science allows but fifteen t<> twenty millions of years 
for tin: history of our present universe, — mueh too little for mate- 
rialistie evolution. 



116 THE GIST OF IT. 

be accompanied by a corresponding variation in all 
of them, or the whole organism will perish. 

Second, Frequently the variation is necessary to 
enable the organism to live at all. Thus, the human 
stomach is lined with a membrane so sensitive to the 
action of the gastric juice as to be almost instantly 
destroyed by it when they are brought in contact ; 
but, as the gastric juice must work in the stomach 
in the digestion of food, this membrane is coated 
with a varnish which is unaffected by the gastric 
fluid. Now, this coating of varnish must have been 
in existence in the first stomach made, or it could 
not have continued in existence at all. Or, again, 
the human body is pre-eminently fitted to be the 
instrument of intelligence. If the hypothesis of 
evolution be true, this human body must have been 
gradually developed from a form akin to some of 
the present lower animals, and the development 
of intelligence in it was consequent upon its becom- 
ing fit for the use of intelligence. Yet this is directly 
opposed to the fact that the human body, in the very 
earliest forms no less than at present, is the least 
fitted of all the animal organisms to survive in the 
struggle for existence, unless from the first it was 
guided by intelligence. Therefore, the first develop- 
ments of delicacy, intricacy, and frailty, of construc- 
tion, which are so marked in the perfected human 
frame, must have been accompanied by the simulta- 
neous development of intelligence to direct and use 
the organism : but such a conclusion is contrary to 
the hypothesis. 

Third, The separate parts, the parts as mutually 



TIIE FACTS OF LIFE. 117 

related, and the whole system of parts as related to 
the outer world, or surroundings, must vary simulta- 
neously. This involves a directive intelligence which 
is practically infinite and omniscient. But this, too, 
is contrary to the hypothesis, which denies any pre- 
determined unity in the process, and so necessitates 
the belief that it was all chance work. A very slight 
application of the doctrine of probabilities will show 
the utter baselessness of such a claim. 1 

Third, the hypothesis is inconsistent with the gen- 
eral bearing of observed phenomena. There are 
over a hundred and twenty thousand species of plants 
in the world, and over forty thousand species of ani- 
mals. 2 Why do not these species shade off into each 

1 " It has been calculated that a speck scarcely visible under the 
most powerful microscope may contain two million four hundred 
thousand molecules of protoplasm. If each of these molecules were 
a brick, there would be enough of them to build a terrace of twenty- 
five good dwelling-houses. But this is supposing them to be all 
alike: whereas we know that the molecules of albumen are capable 
of being of ver}- various kinds. Each of these molecules really 
contains eight hundred and eighty-two ultimate atoms — namely, 
four hundred of carbon, three hundred and ten of hydrogen, one 
hundred and twenty of oxygen, fifty of nitrogen, and two of sulphur 
and phosphorus. . . . Ix-t us try, then, to calculate of how many 
differences of arrangement the atoms of one molecule of protoplasm 
are susceptible, and then to calculate of how many changes these 
different assemblages are capable in a microscopic dot composed of 
two million four hundred thousand of them. . . . But Nature, in 
arranging all the parts of a complicated animal beforehand in an 

apparently structureless microscopic ovum, has all these vast num- 

todeal with in working out tie- exacl result ; and this not in 
one case merely, but in multitudes of cases involving the most 
varied combinations." — Dawson J Facts ami Fancies in Modern 
Science, pp. 199, 200. 

2 The estimates of tin- number of species vary greatly, many 

forms being classed variously as speeies, varieties, 01 even BUD- 
varieties. These figures are very moderate. Herbert Spencer, in 



118 THE GIST OF IT. 

other now, or develop new forms ? Why is it that 
the process has been discontinued for so many cen- 
turies ? Why is it, that, in the past record of life 
on the earth, there are very few indications of snch 
a progress ? Many remains of the intermediate steps 
in the development ought to have been preserved as 
fossils. They are not. Conjecture on these points 
has no place in scientific thinking, and the tendency 
of scientific progress is overwhelmingly against the 
hypothesis. Efforts have been made to show by 
experiment the possibility of the change of one spe- 
cies into another, or the development of some new 
species from an existing one. The attempts have 
all failed. Some species will cross, but the product 
is sterile. Changes can be produced in plants and 
animals by variation of food and surroundings ; but 
the changes are all morphological, never structural : 
and if the varieties thus produced be left to them- 
selves, or put under the old conditions, they quickly 
revert to the original type. 

If, however, the hypothesis fails in all these steps, 
how is it to account for the existence of intelligence 
and free-will ? It is claimed that these are but the 
highest forms in the one continuous development; 
that all the intricate flow of thought, the wonderful 
play of the feelings, and the exertion of the will- 
power, are but the culmination of the unfolding of 

Progress : Its Law and Cause, sect, iv., The Development Hypothe- 
sis, cites from Humboldt three hundred and twenty thousand spe- 
cies of plant life, and from Carpenter two million species of animal 
life. Increasing the number only renders more improbable the 
hypothesis in question. Spencer himself pronounces his belief in 
a power back of, and working through, matter. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 119 

the potencies essentially inherent in the forces and 
elements of the inorganic world. This has been 
briefly touched upon, 1 and the facts shown that 
spirit-action is not governed by the same laws as 
material action, and is therefore not correlated with 
material action, or predictable from it. Further, it 
may be said, inorganic matter nowhere manifests the 
properties of thought, and it is assumption to so 
affirm of it. The properties of spirit-action are so 
different from those of matter, that the two cannot 
be said to be inherent in the same substance, and 
developed the one from the other. The special char- 
acteristics of spirit-action are unity, freedom, and 
self-activity. 2 The spirit is indivisible, save in imagi- 
nation : matter is capable of almost infinite separa- 
tion into parts. The elements and forces of matter 
are governed by fixed, unchangeable, laws. Spirit- 
action is characterized by freedom. 

Especially is this the case in the operation of the 
will-power. Every man's consciousness testifies to 
the fact of the ability to choose, and to be free in his 
choosing. When Mr. Smith decides to go to the club- 
room for an evening, he is perfectly conscious that 
his choice is free, taken on the basis of what seemed 
to him good reasons ; and that he could have chosen 
to remain at home, or go elsewhere than to the club- 
room. Physical elements and forces, on the contrary, 
have no choice in their working. When a magnet of 
known power is laid on the table within a certain 
distance of a pile of iron-filings, the attractive power 
in the magnet mutt exert itself; the filings must 

1 Pp. 47, 48. a p p> 7 _9. 



120 THE GIST OF IT. 

respond to the attraction, and move to the magnet ; 
and they must arrange themselves in definite, known 
positions about the magnet. There is no choice 
about it. A bar of iron must bend and break when 
the pressure on it exceeds a known amount, and can- 
not break until that limit is reached. But how are 
we to measure the strength of the will-power of Gen. 
Grant, who moved relentlessly and resistlessly for- 
ward in the accomplishment of his purposes, but. 
stopped to pet the children, and comfort the wounded 
soldiers, on his way ? Will-power cannot be ex- 
pressed in any terms of material existences. 

When we turn to the sphere of morals and aesthet- 
ics, the difficulties are only increased. What sense 
of duty or truth is there in carbon? How much 
shame can oxygen feel ? Is phosphorus able to 
appreciate the beautiful ? But, unless these poten- 
cies exist in these substances, their combination can- 
not develop them. The incongruity of the supposi- 
tion that in a brick are bound up the powers which, 
under proper conditions, will develop into a Bismarck 
or a Gladstone, is obvious, and sufficiently reveals 
the fallacy of the hypothesis. The case is not bet- 
tered by the fact that all material substances are 
inert, and receive their motion from outside them- 
selves ; but the spirit is an originating center of 
activity. 

Add to all the above the fact that the hypothesis 
offers no explanation for the unity of consciousness. 
President Garfield, lying on his bed in the cottage at 
Elberon, watching the swelling ocean-waves, whose 
ceaseless movement and continuous murmuring he 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 121 

was soon to see and hear no more, was the same 
identical person who, more than thirty years before, 
trudged along the tow-path of the canal, faithfully 
performing his humble duties, and resolving to be 
and do something in the world. Yet in those years, 
every particle of matter in President Garfield's body, 
save perhaps the enamel on the teeth, had been 
changed ; and this not once, but many times. How, 
then, could matter account for this continuance of his 
identity? Every individual knows himself to be the 
same in all his changing experiences; and, since the 
matter composing his body does not continue in it, 
the cause of this unity of consciousness must be looked 
for elsewhere. Du Bois Raymond says that this fact 
of the unity of consciousnesss is "the rock on which 
all materialistic systems split." Higher authority 
than he need not be sought for. 

It is thus evident, from the facts and tendencies of 
modern science, that matter is not one, self-existent, 
or eternal ; that it cannot account for life, organiza- 
tion, and adjustment ; that it is separated by an im- 
passable chasm from all spirit-action ; that it fails 
utterly to explain the phenomena of the oneness, 
freedom, and self-activity of spirit-action, or the 
unity of consciousness. The conclusion inevitably 
follows that the hypothesis must be rejected, and 
that we must look elsewhere for the cause of the 
existent universe. 



122 THE GIST OF IT. 

II. 

Of the ultimate nature of force, 1 even more than 
of the ultimate nature of matter, nothing is known. 
Some speculators, as Boscovitch, would resolve all 
matter into force, making the atom itself merely a 
center of force ; so that the substance or essence of 
all existence is force. However these things may be, 
we are concerned here, as in the preceding section, 
simply with the hypothesis of force as accounting 
for the universe, as distinguished from, and opposed 
to, the other hypotheses. Thus viewed, it may be 
stated in some such way as this : The fundamental 
form of existence in the universe is physical force, 
which, operating under necessary law, without intel- 
ligence or will, wrought out and continues the entire 
scheme of existence. The hypothesis is sometimes 
so formulated as virtually to endow force with the 
attributes of infinity, omnipresence, omnipotence, 
omniscience, and volition ; but it is then simply the 
theist's God under another name. The statement 
here given is free from such objection, and affords a 
basis for study and comparison. Will it meet the 
needs of the case? 

Among the greatest scientific discoveries of the day 
are those of the conservation of energy and the cor- 
relation of the forces, which mean simply, that, in 
all the operations of Nature, no force (or energy) is 
ever destroyed, but merely changes its form ; and that 
several of the forces are apparently interchangeable. 
Like the doctrine of the indestructibility of matter, 

1 Throughout this discussion, force is used as = energy. 



TIIE FACTS OF LIFE. 123 

these truths are often much misunderstood and 
wrongly applied. Many affirm that force is, in the 
absolute sense, incapable of annihilation ; and some, 
as Professor Alexander Bain, claim that all the forces 
of Nature are mutually interchangeable, and that all 
spirit-action is but another manifestation of the one 
underlying force ; so that all thought and volition 
can be resolved into exact equivalents of heat, or 
gravitation, or some other form of energy. 

Imagination is a grand gift, whose proper exercise 
produces many good results. Operating under the 
guidance of the constructive power, it sometimes 
develops ideas which lead to great advancement in 
science. Yet, like all good gifts, it is liable to abuse, 
and nowhere more so than in the scientific world. 
Frequently a conclusion is promulgated as scientific 
truth, and in its discussion much valuable time and 
strength are wasted, prejudices aroused, bitter feel- 
ings engendered, even hard names called, — when, 
lo ! the " truth*' is found to be merely a conjecture, 
and in the light of further, cooler, investigation, van- 
ishes utterly away. The present instance is a notable 
one. It is assumed that purely physical force — i.e., 
the forces, energies, operating in the physical uni- 
verse, as light, chemism, gravitation, — is the ground 
and explanation of all phenomena. Forthwith this is 
proclaimed as a demonstration of science, and woe be 
to the luckless dunce who dares oppose or question 
the decree. It would be ;i curious study to examine 
the logic used by some of those philosophizers. But 
that is irrelevant to our purpose. Let us fairly 
subject the hypothesis to the tests of ascertain d 



124 TEE GIST OF IT. 

scientific fact, and see the result. Our business and 
desire are simply to get at the truth. 

Did force originate matter? The Duke of Argyll 
says, 1 u Energy, like matter, of which indeed it is but 
an incident and attribute. . ." Dr. McCosh saj^s, 
" Energy is simply an attribute of matter, naturally 
inhering in it." Herbert Spencer affirms, " We can- 
not dissociate force from occupied extension, or oc- 
cupied extension from force, because we have never 
an immediate consciousness of either in the absence 
of the other." 2 Force is known to us only by its 
effects in matter. The ether, the limitless ocean 
investing all worlds, and forming the great medium 
and source of energy, is itself a form of matter. 
We have no knowledge of any of the physical forces 
save in connection with matter, and acting through 
and upon it. How, in such a case, force can be called 
the cause, the origin, of matter, is not visible, if 
correct principles of reasoning are adhered to. 

Is matter simply localized force? This is Bosco- 
vitch's hypothesis. The following, from the " Unseen 
Universe," 3 will show the attitude of the scientific 
world toward this view : " Here we get rid of the 
idea of substance entirely, but we preserve (all but 
inertia) those external relations by which alone the 
atom is capable of making known its presence. Even 
so great an experimental philosopher as Faraday may 
be quoted as, to some extent at least, agreeing with 
this notion. It seems to us, however, that this is the 

1 Unity of Nature, p. 81. 

2 First Principles, third edition, p. 223. 
8 Unseen Universe, fifth edition, p. 138. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 125 

embodiment of an over-refinement of speculation, 
surrounded on almost all sides by the greatest diffi- 
culties. It ma)- suffice merely to mention again the 
propert}^ of mass or inertia, which Faraday himself 
seemed to look upon as the one essential characteris- 
tic of matter, and which we can hardly bring our- 
selves to associate with the absence of what we call 
substance." 

Are all forces ultimately resolvable into one ? The 
confident tone of some writers would seem to make 
this question superfluous. But here again assertion 
is put for evidence. It is hardly possible to avoid 
quoting here at length a remarkable passage from a 
work already several times referred to, in which the 
facts of this case are stated with great clearness and 
elegance. The writer says, 1 — 

" There are a great many things in Nature to which 
we stand very close indeed without being able to see 
them clearly, or to understand them at all. And 
this is the case with that great Pentarchy of Physical 
Forces which is constituted by Heat, Light, Magnet- 
ic!). Electricity, and Chemical Affinity. The relations 
between them are as intimate as they are obscure. 
But the nature of those relations, in so far as they 
are known, is pre-eminently suggestive of a unity 
which is founded on the co-ordination of agencies 
not in themselves identical, but, on the contrary. 
separated from cadi other by distinctions as profound 
a- any which can prevail in physics. Writers and 
Lecturers on Science are very apt to speak of the 
Forces as capable of being i transmuted ' or 4 con- 
* Uuity of Nature, pp. Ml. 



126 THE GIST OF IT. 

verted ' into each other. But this is a loose and 
inaccurate representation of the facts. Carbon can 
be converted or transmuted into a diamond under 
certain conditions by a process which, so far as we 
know, adds nothing to it, and takes nothing from it. 
Under both aspects, it is the same substance with no 
element subtracted, and no new element introduced. 
It has simply had its structure altered by a re- 
arrangement of its particles. But no such identity 
can be asserted of the five great Physical Forces of 
which we are speaking now. It is true, indeed, that 
each of them seems sometimes to pass into the other, 
but only as one thing may be said to pass into an- 
other when that other is produced by its antecedent. 
Mechanical Motion in the form of a blow struck 
against living flesh will inflict upon that flesh a wound. 
But it would hardly be correct to say that the motion 
of the blow is transmuted into extravasated blood. 
In like manner when a skilful Savage twirls one dry 
stick upon another in a particular manner, he pro- 
duces by the motion fire. But it would be an erro- 
neous description of the fact to say that the muscular 
strength of the Savage is transmuted into flame. 

" Yet this, or something like this, is the nature of 
the sequence between the Physical Forces which is 
commonly described as transmutation. In all these 
cases there are incidents necessary to the effect which 
are due to other elements than are to be found in the 
apparently producing cause. There is this peculiar- 
ity, however, in the connection between the Physical 
Forces — that they may all interchangeably be either 
the cause or the consequence of each other. Mechani- 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 127 

cal Motion is the most common antecedent of them 
all. It will give rise to Light and Heat, whilst Light 
and Heat will both give rise to mechanical motion. 
In like manner, Heat and Light will give rise to Elec- 
tricity, whilst, conversely, Electricity will give rise 
to Heat and Light. Again, Electricity will give rise to 
Magnetism ; and Magnetism, when accompanied — but 
only when accompanied — by mechanical movement, 
will generate powerful currents of Electricity. These 
currents, again, are so closely connected with Chemi- 
cal Force, that they are the most powerful of all 
agents in setting that Force free to exert its selective 
energy. So intimate is this connection, that Electri- 
city has been described as Chemical Force in motion 
— passing from one point of action to another through 
a chain of intervening substances. And yet the iden- 
tification of Voltaic Electrieity with Chemical Force 
eludes us again when it is considered that in itself it 
has no chemical effect (so far as is known) on the mat- 
ter through which it passes by conduction. The wires 
which complete the circuit in a Voltaic battery suffer 
no decomposition or chemical change, although such 
a change is the origin of the current at one end, and 
ia again the result of it at the other end. Chemical 
action will not arise except under special conditions. 
Hut when these conditions are present, it will pro- 
duce all the 'correlated' forces, Heat, Light, Mag- 
netism, and Electricity, whilst, conversely, all these 
forces either produce or stimulate or intensify chemi- 
cal action." 

It will be noted that gravitation is not included in 
the above list of forces. While it is a conditioning 



128 TIIE GIST OF IT. 

factor in the action of all other forces, it is utterly 
unlike any of them. One fact will show this. All 
the others move with appreciable velocities. Light 
travels about one hundred and eighty-three thousand 
miles , a second. Electricity moves in the human 
body a hundred feet in a second, and will pass around 
the earth in eight minutes. Gravitation acts instan- 
taneously at infinite distances. So marked and entire 
is the difference between gravitation and the other 
forces, that Sir John Herschel says, 1 " It is but. 
reasonable to regard the force of gravitation as the 
direct or indirect result of a consciousness or will 
existing somewhere." 

Such statements, from so high authorities, are 
sufficient to clearly prove at least the extreme im- 
probability of the perfect correlation of all the forces. 
The attempt to show that all spirit-action is likewise 
a manifestation of force, perfectly correlated with 
the others, and so transformable into them, is hope- 
lessly vain. Its only show of evidence arises from 
the confusion of an accompaniment with a cause ; 
i.e., the assertion that because manifestations of 
physical force usually accompany spirit-action, there- 
fore they are spirit-action, and so a form of physical 
force = spirit. This has been sufficiently discussed 
in previous parts of this treatise. The existence of 
such a thing as mind-force, or will-force, correspond- 
ent to the idea of the physical forces, must first be 
demonstrated. Right here is a subtle sophistry in 
this hypothesis. The only idea of the physical forces 

1 Outlines of Astronomy, fifth edition, p. 291. Quoted in Reign 
of Law, p. 73. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 129 

is, that each is, in all its working and manifestations, 
the same force. When, now, this conception is ex- 
tended to the region of spirit-action, it necessarily 
follows that all different minds and wills — as we 
term them — are but manifestations of the one uni- 
versal mind- or will-force ; and so we are at once 
landed in the purest fatalistic pantheism. But the 
hypothesis of such a force is not to be accepted until 
proved. 

When that is done, it will still remain to be shown 
how the physical forces, acting under the law of 
necessity, can be correlated with, and transmutable 
into, the mind-force, — if such there be, — acting 
under the principle of freedom, spontaneity. All 
the physical forces operate under laws, fixed and 
definite, based on relations of space and time, and 
capable of mathematical expression. "Not even a 
drop of water can be formed except under rules 
which determine its weight, its volume, and its shape, 
with exact reference to the density of the fluid, to 
the structure of the surface on which it may be formed, 
and to the pressure of the surrounding atmosphere. M 
Until such necessity is found to rule in the sphere of 
spirit-activity, it is a waste of words to talk about 
the " correlation of physical and spiritual forces." 

Is it necessary to push the discussion of this ques- 
tion farther? The same line of argument followed 
in discussing materialism is equally valid here. If 
force be the cause of aU the universe, it must account 
for that universe. Now, it is evident that there is no 
ground to affirm either the eternity or self-existence 
of force, as distinct from and originating matter, but 



130 THE GIST OF IT. 

yet governed by necessary law; and its assumed 
unity has been shown to be a misnomer. Life-force, 
which cannot be resolved into other forces, though it 
makes use of them all, exists, and must be accounted 
for. Intelligence, emotion, will, moral perceptions 
and judgments, sesthetic sentiments, freedom and 
responsibility, are facts, and must all find a place in 
the explanation of the existing scheme of things. 
But blind, senseless, unfeeling, necessarily-acting, 
physical forces are wholly incompetent to solve the 
problem. They do not possess the properties of 
these existences, and cannot develop them. To 
clothe physical force with the attributes of intelli- 
gence and freedom, of personality, in short, would 
explain the case. This, however, would sacrifice the 
hypothesis, and would be inconsistent with the dis- 
coveries of modern science, which declare that all 
physical forces are fixed and necessary in their 
action, and hence fitted to give permanency to the 
universe ; while, by their power of limitless mutual 
adjustment, they afford scope for the use of them by 
intelligence. 

This hypothesis thus fails to meet the scientific 
demands of the case : it presents a cause which is 
neither adequate nor appropriate to account for all 
the phenomena of the universe ; and it ignores, or 
tries to explain away, large and essential classes of 
facts. It follows that the hypothesis has no claim on 
our further attention, and can only be dismissed as 
vain. Some different, higher, and more comprehen- 
sive, cause must be found, or the phenomena must 
remain unexplained. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 131 



III. 



The third hypothesis is more varied in its forms 
than either of the others. Any satisfactory discussion 
of it within onr limits here is, therefore, extremely 
difficult. The following statement, however, includes 
the essential characteristics of all the systems which 
properly come within the purposes of this treatise, and 
puts the question in a form in which it can be han- 
dled : There is but One Existence, which is self-ex- 
istent, infinite, eternal. It is not the Cause of all 
things, but It is all things. All the phenomena of 
matter and mind are but manifestations of this One 
Being. While possessing intelligence and will, It has 
no separate personality, and becomes conscious only 
in the mind of man. 

On this hypothesis the universe and its cause stand 
related as substance and attribute, or whole and part. 
Each of these would, it seems, furnish an explanation 
of the existing scheme of things. But they both viti- 
ate the causal judgment, — the affirmation of the 
14 why " of things, which lies at the basis of all inves- 
tigation. The causal relation is, on either of these 
suppositions, wholly obliterated. The branches and 
leaves of a tree are parts of the tree ; but the tree is 
not the cause of the branches, nor are they the cause 
of the tree. The tree is the sum-total of all its parts, 
— roots, trunk, branches, leaves; but the cause of the 
tree and its parts is the life-force, which weaves all 
those parts into one organic whole. The brain, heart, 
lungs, are vital parts of the human body, but the body 
is neither the cause nor the effect of these parts. 



132 THE GIST OF IT. 

Here, too, the cause of both parts and body is the 
organizing life-force. Again, extension is an attri- 
bute of matter, but it cannot be said that matter is 
the cause of its own extension. Matter occupies 
space, and so is extended, because it is made that way, 
and cannot be what it is without the attribute of ex- 
tension. Thought-power is a manifestation of mind. 
Mind, however, is not in causal relation to its power 
of thought. 1 Thought-power is an attribute of mind, 
inhering essentially in its nature. Mind would not 
be mind, could not exist, devoid of its thought-power. 
Hence, both mind and its power of thought have their 
common cause in that which brought mind into be- 
ing, and endowed it with the power of thought. It 
is clear that to adopt either of these hypotheses is to 
obliterate the causal relation, and to sacrifice the 
causal judgment, on which alone any rational inves- 
tigation of the origin of the universe is possible. 
There is thus a suicidal weakness at the basis of the' 
hypothesis. 

There are, in the scheme of the universe, evident 
and innumerable tokens of intelligence. The entire 
material world is built up of forces and elements 
governed by fixed laws, which are combined, under 
the action of life and mind, into forms of limitless 
variety, changing on the slightest alteration of the 
exact adjustment of their components. 2 The combi- 
nations found in the world of Nature have been the 



1 Three things should here he carefully distinguished: the mind's 
power of thought, which is its ability to act in that way; the actual 
process of thinking; and the product of that process, —thought. 

2 Pp. 73-75. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 133 

study of mankind for ages, and we are now only be- 
ginning to understand some of them ; while there is 
seemingly boundless scope for all future investiga- 
tion along the still-opening lines of scientific research. 
Now, it is the baldest assumption to say that the 
adaptations in Nature, which it requires mind to 
understand, in even a small degree, are not the prod- 
ucts of mind. The pantheist is not chargeable with 
this error. He admits, and even claims, the existence 
of Mind in the universe; but he mistakes the relation 
of Mind to the universe, and divests mind of some of 
its properties, asserting that the Mind in the universe, 
while possessed of intelligence and will, is devoid of 
separate personality, and attains self-consciousness 
only in the mind of man. 

The error in the relation of Mind to the universe 
has been spoken of, and its weakness — if it be con- 
sidered as that of whole and part, or substance and 
attribute, — shown. It is here, however, that the ele- 
ment of truth which pantheism contains, is found ; 
and, therefore, a further statement is necessary. The 
forces and elements of the world of Nature, in their 
operation perform rational work. Yet they are them- 
selves blind, senseless, incapable of rational action, 
save as under the control of intelligence. How, then, 
is the character of their working to be explained? 
Two answers may be given. 

First, It may be said that the creative Mind has 
established these forces in fixed orders of action; 
and hence, while never able to vary from their pre- 
established methods of operation, in those methods 
they execute the work of intelligence. Here a 



134 TUB GIST OF IT. 

difficulty arises. All the work of these forces is 
performed by their mutual adjustment, — their co- 
ordination. If the combination be in the slightest 
degree varied, the result is changed. All the activ- 
ity in the inorganic world, — the sweep of the ocean- 
billows, as sea and air mingle in the furious storm ; 
the changes in a molecule of carbon, through which 
it passes from black coal to brilliant diamond ; all 
the ceaselessly changing effects produced in Nature 
by the play of life in animal and plant : soft green 
leaf, modest blue violet, flashing plumage, exquisite 
song, — all these are produced by the continual ad- 
justment and re-adjustment of these physical ele- 
ments and forces. In the sphere of human action 
this is easily understood, for we freely and volun- 
tarily produce and modify these adjustments to suit 
our purposes. In living Nature the matter is par- 
tially explicable, for we find the life-force, a compe- 
tent co-ordinating power within a certain sphere. 
But outside this sphere of activity, which is ac- 
counted for by life, and in the inorganic world, in 
what way can we explain this continuous and mar- 
vellously complex co-ordination of activities ? These 
forces and elements have no power of self-adjust- 
ment, self-co-ordination. 

Second, We must, therefore, conclude that all along 
the line of their activity these forces and elements 
are under the immediate, personal, direction and con- 
trol of the immanent creative Mind. The creative 
Mind is thus not only the cause and ultimate ground 1 

1 Cause, in the strict scientific sense, refers to the efficiency ope- 
rating in a series of antecedents and consequents, as when a hullet, 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 135 

of the universe, but also its ever-present, omnipresent, 
Support and Director; and it is His image and reflec- 
tion, — the immediate expression of His will. This 
is the truth involved in pantheism. Its error con- 
sists in its denial of the transcendence of the creative 
Mind, and its identification of that Mind and the uni- 
verse — on the basis of the above-mentioned relations 
— as one. 

The second error of pantheism lies in its definition 
of the creative Mind. The pantheist affirms that this 
Mind possesses intelligence and will, but is destitute 
of separate personality, and becomes self-conscious 
only in the mind of man. Now, all our knowledge 
of mind outside ourselves is necessarily founded on 
the analogy of mind within us. We infer the exist- 
ence of mind, intelligence, free-will, personalit}', in 
human beings about us, because, although we cannot 
penetrate their consciousness, we perceive in them 
manifestations winch, in ourselves, we know to be 
the ontworkings of mind. So the pantheist, in con- 
sidering the universe, and finding therein signs of 
the presence of mind like the manifestations of the 
minds of himself and other human beings, only on 
a most stupendous scale, concludes that mind exists 
in the universe. But he further assumes that Mine) 
in the universe is inseparable from the universe, and 
in so doing he breaks entirely away from the analogy. 
To be consistent, he should affirm that mind, and its 



Bred from a pistol, enters the brain, ami causes hemorrhage, and 
thru death, in a wider sense cause ** ground, — no! the efficiency 

which operates In the series, but that which underlies and conditions 
the aejriey at> S who!.:. 



136 THE GIST OF IT. 

manifestations in his fellow-men, are not distinguish- 
able ; and that, in his own being, the same indications 
of mind which he observes in those about him, and 
all others, are the same thing as his mind. 

The testimony of self-consciousness, however, con- 
vinces every man that not only are there manifesta- 
tions of mind in himself different from, or additional 
to, such as he observes in others, but also that his 
mind is separate and distinct from its manifestations. 
This testimony is unimpeachable, and the pantheist 
makes no attempt to question it. Just like common 
folks, he recognizes in his language this basal distinc- 
tion. He moves his ringers in writing ; but he will 
not affirm that the movement of his fingers, although 
an indication of directive intelligence, is that intelli- 
gence. "I move my fingers," is his statement, like 
that of any one else. 

Moreover, he recognizes in himself indications of 
mind which are not perceptible to the outside ob- 
server. Thoughts flit through his brain which, it 
may be, are never uttered ; his soul is deeply stirred 
by some powerful emotion, but his countenance re- 
mains impassive ; in light, genial conversation with 
his friends, he is at the same time maturing some 
great purpose, and summoning all his energies to its 
execution. On the basis of this knowledge of him- 
self he attributes to those about him a mind like his 
own, in its inner, as well as outer, manifestations, 
though only the latter are observable by him, and in 
all his intercourse with them never finds occasion to 
change his- opinion. 

When, now, he comes to consider the manifesto- 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 137 

tions of Mind in the universe, which, though im- 
measurably grander than the manifestations of mind 
which lie observes in men about him, are exactly 
analogous thereto, he ought, in sound reason, to con- 
sider these manifestations as the outworkings of a 
Mind incomparably superior to his own, but like it, 
and just as certainly distinct from the manifestations, 
and in causal relation thereto, as his own mind, or 
that of any of his friends, is distinct from, and the 
cause of, the indications which reveal its presence 
and activity. On the contrary, he here departs from 
the analogy, and affirms that these manifestations are 
proofs of the existence of a Mind totally different 
in its nature from any other of which he has any 
knowledge : that, whereas indications precisely simi- 
lar to these, in himself and others, are proofs of a 
mind which is self-conscious and separate from its 
manifestations, therefore these indications are evi- 
dences of a Mind which is not self-conscious, and is 
inseparable from its manifestations ! because, when 
he wishes to construct a house, he must be thor- 
oughly awake, and constantly and carefully direct 
all his own actions in his work; therefore, this vast 
mechanism of the universe was constructed by a 
Mind whose capacity is to that of man as the ocean 
to the dewdrop, but which had no consciousness 
of its activity; an Intelligence, which elaborated a 
thought-system of measureless comprehension, in 
which even man, and all the conditions and possibili- 
ties of his action, are included, but knew not that 
it was thinking; a Will, which realized in execution 
the thought-system of the Intelligence, and sustains 



138 THE GIST OF IT. 

through endless ages the universe thus constructed, 
but never is aware of its putting-forth of energy ! 
Nay, more, he insists that this Mind is inseparable 
from the universe, which is its attribute, a necessary 
mode of its activity. 

In our own selves, intelligence and will are insepa- 
rably connected with a self-conscious personality, 
which is, and knows itself to be, separate in exist- 
ence from all others. It is an Ego ; it can say " I ; " 
from it all the outer world is distinct. On what 
ground, of fact or logic, does the pantheist rend 
asunder these attributes ? All the positive proof 
obtainable shows that intelligence and will have no 
existence apart from separate self-conscious person- 
ality. The assertion, therefore, of an unconscious, 
impersonal Intelligence and Will, is without evidence 
on which to rest, and, to all minds except pantheists, 
is, in the full sense of the word, inconceivable. 
There is no analogy of any kind between it and any 
known form of existence, and it violently contra- 
dicts all the facts concerning mind of which we have 
knowledge. The conception can, of course, be ex- 
pressed in words ; but the language does not repre- 
sent a thinkable idea. 

Now, how can such a concept be the cause of the 
universe ? Granting the conceivability of the idea, 
by what process of evolution are personality and 
self-consciousness to be evolved out of an existence 
in which they are utterly lacking? Or, in what 
manner do impersonal, unconscious intelligence and 
will take on personality and self-consciousness, and so 
blend with them as to form one indivisible unity ? The 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 139 

hypothesis affords no room for causation. Whence, 
then, the ineradicable idea of causation in the mind, 
and the irresistible conviction that a causal rela- 
tion exists in the external world ? The hypothesis 
destroys all distinctions between subjective and ob- 
jective existence. Whence, then, the unquestioning 
belief in the mind that such distinctions exist ; that 
it is separate from other forms of being, which, again, 
are distinct from each other? The hypothesis de- 
rives all its material from consciousness ; but its 
conclusions set at naught the most fundamental 
deliverances of consciousness, and necessarily lead 
to absolute scepticism. 1 

The above considerations would seem sufficient to 
set aside the hypothesis of pantheism. Nevertheless, 
the treatment would be incomplete without a pre- 
sentation of some other objections. 

There is a sphere of existence, as has been more 
than once stated in this discussion, in which the law 
of necessity rules. All the forces and elements of 
the inorganic world are under the domination of fixed 
and unchangeable laws. There is another sphere, in 
which the principle of freedom governs. However 
metaphysicians may wrangle over the question of 
the freedom of the will, and becloud their own and 
others' minds by intricate and hazy disquisitions, 
the fact remains, as one of the most unimpeachable 
declarations of consciousness, that the spirit is essen- 
tially free in its activity. The two spheres in which 
these incongruous principles of necessity and free- 
dom operate, are usually regarded as distinct, sepa- 

I Pp. 7-i). 



140 THE GIST OF IT. 

rated from each other by the totality of their 
diameters. Pantheism does away with the distinc- 
tion of these two spheres, making them one, but 
does not disprove the fact of the existence of these 
two principles. Yet, how can they both operate in 
the same substance ? It is conceivable, that, if some 
outside Power created both mind and matter, that 
Power might impress upon matter the law of neces- 
sity, and upon mind the principle of freedom. But if 
there be no distinction between mind and matter, 
if intelligence and will, carbon and electricity, are 
all simply manifestations of one common substance, 
it is incumbent on pantheism to explain the fact of 
the presence and operation in that substance of these 
two contradictory principles. 

The hypothesis makes man the culmination of the 
universe. It is strange and pitiful that man should 
look out into all this universe, so full of tokens of 
wonderful intelligence, and of which he forms so 
infinitesimal and frail a part, and find in it no other 
evidence than that he is its highest and last develop- 
ment. Man is, by the hypothesis, nothing but a 
transitory manifestation of the one substance ; yet, 
by the hypothesis, he is possessed of the highest 
attributes ofc existence, which are lacking in that 
substance ; that is, a passing form in which the sub- 
stance appears, is superior to the substance itself ! 
Self-conscious personality is the crown of existence : 
yet this hypothesis supposes that nowhere in the 
entire infinity of space and time is this to be found, 
save in man, who is u but a vitalized speck, charged 
with a fraction of . . . intelligence, crawling over 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 141 

the face of an egg-shell full of fire, whirling madly 
through infinite space, a target for all the bombs of 
the universe." The statement of such a conclusion 
is its refutation. 

This hypothesis makes no provision for man's 
religious nature. The practice of worship seems 
co-extensive with the race. It is certain, at least, 
that no people have yet been found who were with- 
out religious observances of some kind. 1 Worship 
is essentially objective, is directed toward some per- 
son external to the worshipper, and believed to be 
superior to him, "inaccessible to his senses, but not 
indifferent to his actions," and able to help or injure 
him. Pantheism makes no provision for this dispo- 
sition to worship. A man would recoil from the 
idea of bowing in worship before himself. But how 
is this different from worship paid to a something of 
which he is an essential part ? The desire to worship 
is satisfied only when it terminates upon some 
personality. Pantheism finds no personality in the 
universe but that of man. Worship involves the 
exercise of the noblest feelings of human nature : 
reverence, adoration, love, in their highest forms, 
find scope in, and only in, it. But what place do 
these find in a system which provides no Person to 
be reverenced and loved, before Whom men can bow 
in adoration ? 

The sense <>f responsibility is innate in the human 
mind. "Ought" is a term whose meaning is clear 
in every one, and whose binding force is instinctively 
recognized by all. hi it lies the full force of con- 

1 Flint, Anti-Tlicistic Theories, Lecture 7. 



142 THE GIST OF IT. 

science, which " doth make cowards of us all." The 
criminal who is absolutely safe from detection and 
punishment by his fellow-men, shudders and cowers 
under the racking tortures of an aroused conscience, 
painting vividly before him his past violence, and 
thundering in his ears its predictions of vengeance. 
What meaning has such experience, if pantheism be 
true ? If it has any signification whatever, it must 
be that there is some Being somewhere, superior to 
man, to Whom he is responsible. To say that this 
Being is simply " the eternal principles of truth and 
righteousness," does not lessen the difficulty. Here 
the strange feature of the universal phenomenon of 
sin appears. The feelings with which one contem- 
plates his performance of a mean action are totally 
different from those which arise when he meets with 
an accident, as when he falls and breaks his arm. 
If the Being toward Whom the sense of obligation 
looks is simply a principle, as gravitation is a prin- 
ciple, this difference is inexplicable ; but it can be 
understood when we admit, as the history of every 
religion shows, the consciousness of every man tes- 
tifies, that this sense of ought, of right and wrong, 
is directed ultimately toward a Person. 

This fact of the universal occurrence of wrong- 
doing affords a strong argument against the pan- 
theistic hypothesis. From the consciousness and 
observation of every one, it appears that in number- 
less instances men deliberately refuse to do that 
which they know and admit to be right and best for 
them, and deliberately choose that which they con- 
fess to be wrong and disastrous. There is no other 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 143 

being in the animate world, no plant or animal, that 
does not properly exercise its functions, and fulfil 
the purpose of its being. Why is it that man, if — 
as the pantheist declares — he is the highest develop- 
ment, not alone of all earthly existences, but of the 
whole scheme of originated and unoriginated being, 
is thus perverse and failing? Pantheism answers 
only by ignoring, explaining away, or denying, the 
fact. 

Such, then, is the third hypothesis as to the origin 
of the universe. It starts with contradicting the 
testimony of consciousness as to the essential unity 
of the spirit, and thus impeaches at the beginning 
the witness whose evidence is necessary to furnish 
the data for the hypothesis, and whose truthfulness 
is vital to all knowledge. It vitiates the idea oi 
causation, and arbitrarily posits, in language, an 
illogical and inconceivable substance, which = its 
manifestations, and these = all phenomena. It 
denies personality and self-consciousness to this sub- 
stance, and thereby cuts away all ground for its 
affirming these attributes of man. It offers no ex- 
planation of the facts of the religious nature, of 
worship, duty, right and wrong, and provides no 
sphere for their action. It offers no hope to bur- 
dened, Buffering humanity, and presents no motives 
for exertion. Its logical outcome is scepticism in 
the most absolute sense, perfect indifference and 
apathy, ultimate annihilation. It is obviously in- 
adequate to fulfil the conditions of the situation; 
and it, too, must 1"- passed by. 

The three hypotheses thus far discussed, of matter 



144 THE GIST OF IT. 

of force, and of pantheism, though differing in many 
particulars, have, nevertheless, a common ground 
in their bearing on the nature of man. Matter 
and force are essentially fixed and necessary in their 
action. If, then, man is evolved from either of 
them, it is foolish to suppose that he is governed 
in his action by any thing else than fixed law ; and, 
if this be true, his boasted freedom and personality 
are the merest illusions. Pantheism reaches the same 
result, in that it denies personality to the substance 
of which man is but a manifestation, and virtually 
destroys the distinction of necessary and free action. 
This, it is evident, takes away all responsibility, and 
overturns the foundation of all society. To attempt 
to hold any man accountable for his actions is a 
contradiction in terms, if he is under the rule of 
necessary law, or is but a part in the One, All- 
embracing, Being. 

When this is done, all moral distinctions are wiped 
out. We cannot speak of an action as right or 
wrong, honorable or mean, brave or cowardly. All 
terms connected with "ought," and "right," and 
" truth," are at once rendered meaningless, and all 
action is made alike and incapable of expression in 
terms of commendation or reproof. All stimulus 
to exertion is likewise removed. Why should one 
put forth earnest effort, in the face of difficulty and 
discouragement, if he and his actions are in the 
grasp of unavoidable necessity, or the appearances 
of a Universal Being in which he is soon to be 
merged and lost ? 

Out of this process comes the destruction of all 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 145 

hope for humanity. Trial and difficulty, sin and 
suffering, are facts. Purposes are thwarted, ambi- 
tions crushed, lives darkened with sorrow, hearts 
rent and broken with anguish. Everywhere life is 
rendered tolerable only because of the hope that 
sometime and somewhere all wrongs will be righted, 
all sorrows relieved : multitudes of men patiently, 
cheerfully, endure the most bitter experiences, be- 
cause they believe they have found relief for bur- 
dened conscience, a sustaining power in all life. All 
this these hypotheses would take away, and leave 
poor humanity to grope on under the accumulating 
w r eight of unrighted wrong and increasing heart- 
anguish, until, passing through the black-robed, 
sepulchral portals of Pessimism, they are forever 
lost in the unending forgetfulness of complete anni- 
hilation. 

IV. 

The fourth and last hypothesis, in the choice lan- 
guage of Professor Flint, elsewhere quoted, 1 is " that 
the universe owes its existence, and continuance in 
existence, to the reason and will of a self-existent 
Being, who is infinitely powerful, wise, and good. . . . 
That Nature has a Creator and Preserver, the nations 
a Governor, men a heavenly Father and Judge." Is 
this the true explanation? 

It will be remembered that in the discussion of the 

foregoing hypotheses, their final rejection was not 

due to their failure to attain absolute certainty, as in 

a mathematical demonstration ; but, rather, they were 

> p. 101. 



146 THE GIST OF IT. 

set aside on the grounds of lack of rational consist- 
ency and inability to account for the phenomena. 
We are throughout in the sphere of reason, and are 
therefore to weigh all evidence, consider all argu- 
ments, and form our conclusions as sound reason 
directs. Further, in the preceding hypotheses, many 
distinct lines of proof were taken up. These lines 
were often separate, so that the proof or disproof 
of one did not affect the validity of another : but yet 
they were, in the aggregate, cumulative ; the proof 
of each, while not of necessity involved in the pre- 
ceding, yet formed an additional strand in the com- 
plete cord of evidence ; which was, on the contrary, 
in so far weakened by the breaking of any one of the 
strands. The cumulative character of the reasoning 
on these hypotheses must not be overlooked. The 
different lines of proof do not form a chain, in which 
the strength of the whole is simply that of the weak- 
est link. But they form strands in a cord, whose 
strength is that of the entire combination. We pass, 
then, to the study of this last hypothesis. 1 

The causal argument in its simplest form has been 
so often referred to in the other parts of this discus- 
sion, 2 that it needs but a re-statement here. Logic 
and science alike demonstrate and found upon the 
fact that there must be some eternal Being: for, if 
there ever was a time when there was no being, there 
never could be any, since it is impossible that some- 
thing should arise from nothing ; the fact of present 

1 For synopsis of logical relations of parts of theistic argument, 
see Appendix 8. 
* Pp. 94-98. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 147 

being proves an eternal Being. Again, that eternal 
Being must be self-existent; for, if not so, it is de- 
pendent for its own existence on some other being, 
and so cannot have been eternal. Further, this self- 
existent, eternal Being (or Cause) must be one ; for 
not only does the universe bear the evident marks of 
unity, but the constitution of the mind forbids its 
assumption of more than one Primal Cause ; and if 
there were a plurality of self-existent, eternal, causes, 
it is not conceivable how they could work together 
in the production of a common effect. This one, 
self-existent, eternal Cause must be able, as tried by 
the various tests, 1 to account for all the facts of the 
universe. 

First of these is the fact of dependent being itself. 
The jmi verse as a whole had an origin. Even if 
1 the purely materialistic evolution hypothesis were 
true, and all has been developed from an original 
nebulous condition, yet that nebula could not have 
been eternally existent, else it would continue to 
be such ; and, besides, the principles by which it 
developed must have been stamped upon its con- 
stitution. 

The facts of certain special phenomena also point 
to an original First Cause. Life is not developer! 
from matter. It is not a link in the chain of the de- 
velopment of physical elements and forces, but is 
superimposed upon them, and uses them. Mind is 
not related to either matter or Life as effect to 
cause; but it is superior to both, and both are its 
servants and instruments. These facts all naturally 
l Pp. 97, 



148 THE GIST OF IT. 

refer to some First Cause, which is their common 
source. 

The universe is orderly in its construction. Mathe- 
matical relations prevail everywhere throughout it. 
The weight, density, volume, and form of the heav- 
enly bodies are all expressible as numerical relations. 
Their rates and periods of movement, and distances 
from each other, are likewise based on ideas of num- 
bers and space. The action of all the physical forces 
is expressed in mathematical formulas, and the pri- 
mary elements are numerically and quantitatively 
constituted. It is a familiar fact that the orbits of 
the heavenly bodies are all conic sections, and that the 
most abstruse mathematics are constantly applied in 
their revolutions. It is an equally certain fact that 
the smallest particles of matter in the universe, in 
their mutual balancings, are at every instant passing 
through movements which involve mathematical cal- 
culations greater and more intricate than any of 
which we have any conception. This order can be 
explained only on the ground of intelligence in the 
Cause of the universe. Mathematical studies require 
the exercise of the highest type of intellect, and all 
forms of knowledge are found to In some way 
embrace mathematical ideas. It seems, then, only 
rational to attribute to the First Cause intelli- 
gence. 

The objection that this represents the First Cause 
as a mechanical contriver, and hence is degrading to 
the theist's conception, is of no weight ; for, if it be 
true, the men who have attained highest eminence in 
mathematical studies are by that fact shown most 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 149 

inefficient, and so Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton, and 
La Place, must be ranked as inferior in intelligence 
to the stupid boy who never can get beyond " twice 
one is two." 

The fact of order in the universe increases the 
probability of intelligence in its Author. Only an 
Intelligence of whose powers we can form no ade- 
quate idea could determine the weight, volume, den- 
sity, distance, and rate of revolution, of the vast 
number of worlds in the depths of space, — inter- 
lacing their orbits in manifold complications, and 
passing each other with marvellous rapidity at all 
combinations of angles and distances, — so that in 
all the ages of their history they should move on 
in harmony without destructive collision. The 
slightest change in the numerical relations of the 
elements of the universe — e.g., if gravitation should 
act in inverse ratio to the mass and as the cube of 
the distance — would wreck the entire mechanism. 
This fact is, therefore, a powerful testimony to the 
existence in the First Cause of most wonderful 
intelligence. 

This orderly arrangement of the universe forms 
the basis for another fact, which is a still stronger 
evidence in the same direction. The universe, as a 
whole and in its parts, is a system of adaptations of 
means to ends. Thus, the human body is a mosl 
complicated mechanism, in which specific means are 
combined for the accomplishmenl of definite ends. 
The bones of the hand and arm form a framework 

upon which the muscles are placed ; the muscles are 

capable of great contraction and expansion, and are 



150 THE GIST OF IT. 

charged with electricity ; all through the muscles 
runs the telegraph - system of the nerves; when, 
then, any action is necessary, — as in taking a book 
from a shelf, — the nerves, under the direction of 
intelligence, let loose the electricity in the muscles, 
and the hand performs its appointed work. All the 
organs of the body are exactly adapted to a specific 
work necessary in the body. The heart must pump 
the blood throughout the entire system, regularly 
and rapidly, with no rest during life : no engine of 
human manufacture is equal to it in its compact and 
perfect structure. The wonders of the eye, the ear, 
the hand, the vocal organs, are too familiar to need 
more than allusion here. Some individuals have 
criticised this argument because the eye is not an 
ideally perfect optical instrument ; but they are suffi- 
ciently answered by the fact that an eye made as an 
ideally perfect optical instrument would be unfit for 
man's use, while these imperfections are the very 
things which adapt the eye to the needs of the con- 
ditions under which it is to be used. These are but 
illustrations. 

In all the organisms of Nature, there is found a 
perfect adaptation of parts, a fitting of means to 
ends for the welfare of the organism and the exercise 
of its functions. The teeth of the beaver are fitted 
for cutting wood, its tail is a perfect trowel, and its 
fur coat enables it to pass at ease through the water. 
These things are necessary if the beaver is to live 
and exercise itself as such. 

Beyond and above all the fitting together of means 
for the accomplishment of ends in the organism itself, 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 151 

there are other ends entirely outside the organism, 
for which provision is made in the organism. Thus, 
the combination of elements in wheat is essential to 
its being wheat; and that end would be fulfilled if 
every grain, as it ripened, fell upon the earth unno- 
ticed. But in the wheat are found the elements 
needed for the support of the human body, in the 
best form for easy assimilation. Thus, the combina- 
tion in the grain ministers to far higher purposes 
than simply its own perfection. The digestive pro- 
cess by which plants absorb carbon from the atmos- 
phere is essential to their own structure, in which 
carbon is the predominant element. But, if it were 
not for this arrangement, animal life would be impos- 
sible on the earth. 

The entire scheme of material existence has been 
so organized as to furnish opportunity and material 
for the work of intelligence. All this arrangement 
was made by the First Cause, and must have been 
planned for from the beginning. The whole round 
of created being is thus a complete thought-system, 
in which, from the atom of hydrogen to the body of 
man, each form is complete in itself, adapted to its 
own place and functions, and yet subserves the pur- 
poses of other forms higher than itself, until it all 
culminates in a stupendous contrivance for the end- 
operation of intelligence. 

Objectors to this argument for purpose, design, 
final cause, — however it may be termed, — lose sight 
of this grand system of adaptations, and confine their 
attention to some minute and obscure [nuts whose 
purpose is hard to discern. They are as sensible as 



152 THE GIST OF IT. 

one would be who entered a brass-horn factory, and 
examining the little tubes and valves being made, 
but having no knowledge of their uses, stigmatized 
the entire factory as devoid of all purpose or plan. 
Everywhere, except in philosophic speculation, such 
a man would receive no hearing. Various answers 
may be made to such critics. 1 

Some regard as conclusive evidence against the 
idea of design in creation, the fact that in some ani- 
mals rudimentary and apparently useless organs are 
found. To these it may be replied, — 

First, There is a peculiar air of egotism in the 
denial that an organ is useful simply because we do 
not see what purpose of utility it subserves. Human 
knowledge is partial and progressive, and it is not 
the part of wisdom to make our ignorance a ground 
of dogmatic decision. No one understands certainly 
the function of the spleen : are we, therefore, to say 
that it is of no use in the human system ? 

Second, The lack of adaptation in some cases 
is no argument against the fact of it in other in- 
stances. Here is an illustration of the way in 
which many speculators violate the simplest rules 
of reasoning. In syllogistic form the objection 
amounts to this : — 

Here is an organ in which is no evidence of useful purpose. 

This is one among all the organs in the scheme of living 
beings. 

Therefore all the organs of all living beings are devoid of 
useful purpose. 

1 These answers are made, not as all a cumulative reply to one 
objection, but as different replies to various phases of criticism. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 153 



How does such reasoning differ from the follow- 



ing? 



Arsenic is evidently not intended for food. 

Arsenic is one of the elements. 

Therefore, none of the elements are intended for food. 

One might as well assert, that because the ma- 
chinery in a rolling-mill makes a great noise, which 
subserves no purpose whatever, therefore there is 
no proof of purpose or plan in the rolling-mill ! 
Every one instantly perceives the foolishness of such 
reasoning. Yet it is infinitely more rational than the 
action of him who, finding a little appendix to 
the great intestine called the vermiform appendix, the 
representative of the caecum in the herbivorous ani- 
mals, 1 which is, as far as can be determined, useless 
in the human system, insists that, therefore, there is 
no evidence of reason and plan in all the beautiful 
and complicated mechanism of the human body. 

Third, If it be true that all species of animal exist- 
are organized on the basis of a few typical 
forms, these organs, which in all probability are 
useless in the organism in which they are found, are 
yet capable of explanation. The body of man is 
tin- realization of hints and attempts all through the 
scheme of animal existence below him; it is tin- per- 
fection of animal development; and the bodies of 
the bird, the fish, the quadruped, arc all formed dis- 
tinctively on the Bame plan as the human frame. 
The side-finS of the Beal, the wings of the bird, the 

forelegs of tin- dog, are representative of the arm of 

man. It i> obvious, that, If the First Cause operated 

1 Janet : Pinal Causes, second edition, p. 102. 



154 THE GIST OF IT. 

along these lines of great types in the work of crea- 
tion, there is no incongruity in the presence in cer- 
tain forms of useless organs, which are representative 
of fully developed organs playing an important part 
in the economy of other living beings. 

Fourth, It is unquestionably true that many organ- 
isms have a great power of adaptation to circum- 
stances. Great changes of temperature, food, and 
other conditions, are endured by animals as well as 
by men ; and, if the change of conditions be a per- 
manent one, the adaptation of the organism will 
assume an appropriate and lasting form. Writers 
on this subject frequently seem to suppose that the 
living organism is exactly like the machine which 
man constructs from physical materials ; that the 
watch, the oak, the eagle, are all machines in pre- 
cisely the same sense, with exactly the same powers 
of adaptation and varied action. They wholly over- 
look the fact of life. This disposition to slur over 
or deny the existence of a life-force has been produc- 
tive of immense mischief in these discussions. It is 
claimed that life is simply organization. But the 
watch is as certainly an organization as the oak or 
the eagle, yet it is not alive. Life is the cause of 
the organization, weaves the various elements into 
one whole, builds the organism into maturity, repairs 
its waste, preserves its integrity and vigor. This 
life-force has great endurance, and, in many cases, 
great latitude in its choice of materials for work. 
Evidently, then, when the conditions are greatly 
changed, the life-force may change the organism to 
correspond to its new circumstances. Hence, it is 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 155 

not strange that a bird living always on grains, fruits, 
and worms, but gradually trained to an exclusive 
fish-diet, should in time have its stomach changed so 
as most easily to work up the new kind of food. 
But the bird is just as much a bird, and a bird of the 
same species, afterwards as before. Now, clearly, in 
the constant change of circumstances resulting from 
the development of the earth, many demands have 
been made upon this power of adaptation in many 
organisms. Hence, some organs may gradually lose 
their power, become atrophied and useless, but yet 
remain as parts of the original mechanism. 

Fifth, There is neither necessity nor sound reason 
for concluding that, because there is a purpose of 
utility in the construction of most organs, therefore 
every part and property of every organ must be for 
some useful end. Men often confuse different forms 
of purpose. Every thing in the universe is not for 
the sole, narrow purpose of utility, or necessarily 
related to the use of other forms of being. The 
peach would be just as useful if its cheek were not 
mantled with an exquisite blush. The almost endless 
variety of form and color in the plumage of the hum- 
ming-birds cannot be shown to, in any way, minister 
to a purely useful end. The claim that these are 
"ministering servants to the great function of repro- 
duction" is a pretty conceit of the naturalist, but 
unfortunately lacks proof. It is a far less poetic 

and an offensive conceit which considers all these 

manifestations of beauty to be for man's aesthetic 
benefit. Besides, how is that to be reconciled with 

the facts that the ocean depths swarm with beautiful 



156 THE GIST OF IT. 

creatures, whom man never sees save when occasion- 
ally he brings one up with his drag-net ; that micro- 
scopic organisms, as the diatoms, are exquisitely 
adorned with an infinite variety of engraved pat- 
terns ; that, long before man appeared upon the 
earth, it abounded with forms of delicate and mag- 
nificent beauty? Bird, beast, and man, each in 
accordance with its nature and capacity, are delighted 
by this display of beauty. But it is as true to say 
that they were created for beauty, as that it was 
created for them. Rather, it is best to conclude 
that beauty, ornament, varied perfection in color and 
form, is itself an end in creation, and entered into 
the plan of the original Thinker. 

Another class of persons think that the evolution 
hypothesis leaves no room for design. This depends 
entirely on what is meant by evolution. If the term 
signifies a pure work of chance, in which innumera- 
ble combinations were made, out of which the present 
happened to survive, but the whole process has been 
without any directive principle of any kind, it fol- 
lows that all design or plan in the process is impossi- 
ble. But this form of the hypothesis is without any 
basis, and does not merit consideration. 

If, on the contrary, there has been some governing 
principle in the development, if organ and function 
and conditions have all been involved in a mutual 
inter-action, and a law of natural selection has 
operated in determining the results ; if, in short, 
the evolution has proceeded according to some 
definite plan, — the argument for design is strength- 
ened thereby. The governing principle, or prin- 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 157 

ciples, must be related to the entire development, 
and must direct in the orderly succession of each 
step in the unfolding, with a view to the ultimate 
perfection of the whole scheme. But this means 
that a plan was formed before the process of evolu- 
tion began, in which every step in the process was 
provided for, and the whole arranged in an intricate 
system of means and ends culminating in some 
ultimate perfection. Stronger evidence than this 
of a shaping and designing Intelligence could not 
well be imagined ; so that in this form, which is 
virtually that of most evolutionists, the hypothesis 
is necessarily theistic. 

The nature of man furnishes a series of weighty 
arguments for the hypothesis. If the world of Na- 
ture necessitates intelligence in its Originator, what 
of the world of Mind ? The intricacy and delicacy 
of the human spirit, its wonderful powers of thought, 
emotion, and will, its limitless capacities, all are in- 
capable of explanation unless the Originator of the 
mind possessed the greatest conceivable intelligence. 
All the marvels of the outer world sink into insig- 
nificance beside the mysteries of the mind of a child, 
and are lost in comparison with the working of the 
spirit-life of a mature and gifted man. A being 
without intellect never could have planned the 
knowing-power of man; a being without any trace 
of thought could not have organized the power 
of emotion, whose activity is such an integral and 
important pari of the spirit-life ; nor could man's 
will-power be created by a being who could not 
plan for the action of thai will. In addition to this, 



158 THE GIST OF IT. 

it is also necessary that this Being have will ; for all 
this plan can be executed and held in continuance 
only by the exercise of tremendous will. Matter 
and force and mind exist, because the First Cause 
planned for their being, and then willed that they 
should come into being ; i.e., put forth of Its own 
power in accomplishing in reality that which It had 
planned. From this it results that the First Cause 
is a Self-Conscious Personality, for these attributes 
of intelligence and will have been found to be in- 
separable from a self-conscious personality in whom 
they may inhere. 

At this point, two objections demand considera- 
tion : — 

First, It is affirmed that such a conception de- 
grades the Deity to a mere mechanical contriver, 
working out, by patient and painstaking effort, all 
the minutiae of created being, and, with penurious 
care, adapting part to part and all to the great end 
in infinitely complex " piece-work." The claim is 
made that unconscious intelligence is a higher form 
than conscious intelligence, and that artistic genius 
is of the latter form. But while it is true, and has 
been in this discussion strenuously urged, 1 that the 
creative Intelligence is essentially artistic, having 
regard to the beauty and richness of His designs, 
yet this is no proof of unconscious mental action. 
" The mechanical and artistic represent distinctions 
in the sphere of conscious intelligence. Art does not 
pertain to unconscious intelligence, so far as we can 
perceive, but to the highest conceivable form of con- 
scious intellect. The real distinction is between 

i Pp. 155, 156. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 159 

ordinary talent and genius. Ordinary talent is 
mechanical. It mast painfully elaborate its plan, 
and it is obliged to economize means in order to 
realize it. There must be, therefore, a painstaking 
adaptation of means to the end, in order to avoid 
waste, and make every shred count. Genius is not 
bound by these limitations. Its plan or idea stands 
before it by a flash of creative inspiration. In realiz- 
ing its idea, genius differs from talent, — not in the 
accomplishment of its ends without means, but in its 
unlimited command over means, and the celerity and 
ease with which it attains its end. Its boundless 
resources free it from the law of economical contriv- 
ance. It may be prodigal, and lavish resources in 
beautifying which utility would condemn as waste. 
In. fact, the apparent waste will be simply a vent for 
exuberant resources. Genius is not unconscious, 
but its consciousness differs from that of ordinary 
talent. It is free from the feeling of limitation and 
the sense of drudgery which besets ordinary talent. 
We have no reason to suppose that Shakspere was 
less conscious of what he was doing when he wrote 
'Macbeth' than the author of a dull Congressional 
speech." 1 Hence, though we cannot measure the 
thought-power of the creative Mind, nor comprehend 
that Mental Vision before which all the contents of 
all space and time are ever and fully present ; yet, 
when we conceive of the Primal Personality as always 
and vividly conscious of itself and all its works, 
though our minds falter and tire under the over- 
whelming grandeur and sublimity of the conception, 

1 For this distinction t.he author is indebted to Dr. Oruioud. 



160 THE GIST OF IT. 

still we are thinking in exact accordance with both 
fact and reason. 1 

Second, The objection is made that such a con- 
ception of the Deity is anthropomorphic, that it is 
simply making the Deity an infinitely exalted man. 
But leading thinkers on the theistic problem now 
agree that the question is not whether or not shall 
human attributes be ascribed to the Deity? but, 
what attributes of man shall be thus ascribed, in 
what form, to what degree ? Any thing which would 
limit or degrade the Deity cannot, of course, be 
ascribed to Him : therefore, a material body, all im- 
perfection and sin, are denied Him. But the attri- 
butes of personality — self-consciousness, intelligence, 
emotion, will, moral and aesthetic powers, — are not 
essentially limited or limiting : their possession ele- 
vates, not degrades, their possessor. They may, 
therefore, be affirmed of the Deitj^. 

The facts of the moral nature are only to be ex- 
plained on the h} r pothesis of this one, self-existent, 
eternal, self-conscious, personal, Intelligence and Will. 
Duty grows out of the two ideas of oughtness, or 
obligation binding us to action, and right, or the 
standard to which we are bound to conform. These 
two ideas are ultimate ; i.e., are not resolvable into 
simpler ideas. Such a law as this cannot be self- 
imposed. It is inwrought into the very fiber of 
man's spirit constitution, and so results from the 
will of Him who made the spirit of man. An 
inherent sense of obligation is a feeling of obliga- 
tion to the will of some person. The standard 

i Pp. 137, 138. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 161 

to determine the performance of that obligation is 
that of absolute rectitude, and, therefore, the Will 
from which it emanates must be an absolutely right- 
eous Will. The ultimate aim of duty is the attain- 
ment of moral perfection in character, and hence the 
Character of which the determining Will is the ex- 
pression must be one of absolute goodness. 

Closely connected with the ideas of duty and per- 
fection, is that of religion. This involves the exercise 
of all the powers of the spirit, and finds its full ex- 
pression in worship. Worship is possible only of 
some Personality, and that Personality One which 
can be loved and adored, reverenced and feared, 
and Who is responsive to this worship, and such that 
with Him the spirit of man can come into commun- 
ion. Thus this Primal Personality must be possessed 
of all moral perfections. 

When, now, to all this the idea of infinity is at- 
tached, which naturally and necessarily arises in the 
conception of an Eternal Being, self-existent, the sole 
Cause and Controller of all existence in all space 
and time, we find ourselves brought, by the cumula- 
tive evidence of science and reason, to the fact of the 
existence of one eternal, self-existent, infinite Being, 
essing all moral perfections, planning all things 
by I lis infinite intelligence, giving them reality and 
continuing their existence by the exercise of His 
infinite will ; and this Being is the theist's God. 

Additional testimony is furnished by the fact of 
sin. Sin is the one blot on the universe. Every- 
where its defiling, destructive influences are felt. 
Violence and treachery, grief and remorse, come in 



162 THE GIST OF IT. 

some way in all men's experiences. This cannot 
be explained as resulting simply from " a failure to 
fulfil the law of one's being," when by that expres- 
sion it is intended to do away with all idea of a 
Supreme Person Whose will furnishes the ground 
of the law, and to Whom the individual is responsi- 
ble for his infraction of the law. The withering 
of the hand, and the practice of falsehood, are both 
"failures to fulfil the law of one's being." But, in 
the latter case, the failure is the outcome of the free 
volition of the individual ; and there results from it, 
not merely the wreck of the being, but the conscious- 
ness of guilt, of liability to punishment. It is not all 
to say that by indulgence in lying, a man's spirit be- 
comes perverted, and gradually all sense of truthful- 
ness within him is deadened, all trust in him by 
others is destroyed, and so his nature and activity are 
wrecked. In addition to this, there is in every indi- 
vidual under such circumstances, the feeling that he 
is liable to be called to an account, and visited with 
special punishment for his wrong-doing. This is the 
fearful element in the tortures of an accusing con- 
science, — the consciousness of the displeasure of a 
Supreme Person to Whom one is accountable. 

The history of all peoples shows the prevalence of 
these ideas. The inscriptions of ancient Babylonia 
and Egypt, and the hymns and myths of the oldest 
Sanskrit peoples, tell of efforts to appease the offended 
deities. The Druids, gathering about their m} r stic 
altar, and pouring upon it the fresh blood of inno- 
cent maidenhood ; the Aztecs, bowing in adoration 
before the sun, the representative of the Deity ; the 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 163 

sacrifices, festivals, and mysteries, of Grecian religion ; 
the tears and pleadings of a world of stricken human 
beings, — all witness the same truth. 

We come, then, to our conclusion. The cause of 
the universe is God, — an eternal, self-existent, infi- 
nite personality, possessing all power, and the fulness 
of moral perfections. His intelligence planned and 
directs the universe, His will brought it into being, 
and gives it permanency. Distinct from His creation, 
He- yet is the ever-present, continuous Support and 
Director of the universe. 

This hypothesis satisfies all the conditions. It sup- 
plies a true cause : for in God there is genuine effi- 
ciency. It presents an adequate cause: none of the 
effects in the universe can surmount the causal agency 
of the Deity. It provides an appropriate cause : the 
creative, directive will of the infinite Being is per- 
fectly fitted to produce all the effects of dependent 
being. It reveals a known cause : our own will is 
the only kind of real, originating power known to us, 
and in this hypothesis we find an answering, though 
infinite and independent, will. It gives an explana- 
tion of all the facts : such a Being could create the 
forces and elements of the inorganic world, establish- 
ing them in fixed modes of action, giving each its own 
character and function, and combining all into one 
complete mechanism. 1 Then, by a new creation, He 
could introduce life, and through it organize the per- 
fecl scheme of earthly, animated existences. At last, 
above all, lie could put the spirit of man — made in 
His own image, under the rule of the principle of 
1 Or even developing all from one primal form. 



164 THE GIST OF IT. 

freedom, — in such relation to the universe as to be 
able to move in and utilize it, and capable of com- 
munion with Himself. 

Such, then, is our theory. We trace our origin to 
God. The full bearing of this position will be shown 
later. It is now necessary to consider whither this 
gifted human nature, originating in the infinite God, 
and moving in this wonderful universe, is going. 
What, where, and how, is its future ? 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 165 



CHAPTER IV. 

WHITHER AM I GOING? 

When men of business start upon a journey, they 
determine beforehand their destination, route, con- 
nections, expenses, and all other matters which can 
be known before they leave home. Wise tourists 
adopt the same principle. Both find that in this way 
they save time and money, avoid annoyances, secure 
better results. In just the same way, since, as has 
so frequently and so beautifully been shown, all men 
are travellers in this world, moving constantly on- 
ward, the wise among men try to forecast the future, 
fix the point in it which will be the terminus of their 
efforts, and plan for the attainment of that which 
they perceive before them. It is a question for the 
tourist whether he will travel, or remain at home ; but 
it is not a question for us whether we will move on- 
ward or stand still in life. Whether we will or not, 
whether we even think of it or not, the days slip by 
OS one by one, month is added to month, year to year, 
and we glide, by imperceptible but sure and rapid 
transitions, from childhood, into youth, full maturity, 
declining age, and, before we arc aware life IS lin- 

ished, and we pass put from it ; while others, succeed- 
ing us, repeat the same routine. The fleetness of life 



166 THE GIST OF IT. 

is nowhere more sweetly expressed than in the words 
of Homer, where Glaucus says, 1 — 

" O large-souled Diomed, 
Why ask my lineage ? Like the race of leaves 
Is that of humankind. Upon the ground 
The winds strew one year's leaves, the sprouting wood 
Puts forth another brood, that shoot and grow 
In the spring season. So it is with man : 
One generation grows while one decays." 

In this rapid and inevitable progress, it is not only 
a proper, but a necessary, inquiry, What is the desti- 
nation, the end, of life ? We need to stop for a mo- 
ment, in the rush and whirl of life, — which, in our 
hurried American society, affect even the children, 
and push them forward sometimes until all the joy 
and charm of childhood are crowded out of them, 
— and ask ourselves, Whither are we going? Is 
there any progressive unity in this mad race of life ? 
What lies before us, behind the heavy curtains which 
veil the secrets of the future ? 

I. 

We are going into life. No one, of course, can tell 
how long his life will be. Constantly the fact is 
brought home to us, sometimes to our personal sorrow 
in the death of some dear one, that no man's hold on 
life is sure, but that those whose prospects of life 
seemed fairest may be suddenly cut down. Yet no 
one knows how long his life may continue, for ripe 
old age may be reached by even those who in youth 

i Iliad, Bryant's trans., hook vi. 11. 185-191. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 167 

seemed sickly, and apparently doomed to an early 
grave. Life-insurance statistics show that the ave- 
rage expectancy of life for the young man of twenty- 
two is forty-one l years ; which means, that many will 
die all along the way before reaching that age, and 
that some will pass far beyond it. With this proba- 
bility before us, it is highly important to know what 
is bound up in life. What facts are there concerning 
the future which can be known at the start, and 
which will form the basis for a life-plan? 

One of the most striking things in the unfolding of 
human life, is its possibilities. Here is a marked con- 
trast between man and all the animate creation below 
him. The future of the plant or animal is determined 
from the start, and is uniform with that of others of 
the same species. It is said sometimes that the vari- 
ety in unintelligent life is infinite, but the statement 
is true only in a limited sense. There is endless di- 
versity in the forms of life presented by Nature every- 
where ; and by patient cultivation some species may 
be, in certain lines, highly developed. The beautiful 
rose of the garden is developed from the wild brier- 
rose of the forest; our fleet and handsome horses have 
their ancestry in the wild mustangs; but the analogy 
is imperfect, even in the general application, and fails 
entirely for our purpose here. 

Take up a rosebud just showing its delicate, heaven- 
painted tints through the outer folds of green. Is 
there any uncertainty about the development of the 
bud ? Is it not a matter of positive knowledge, thai, 
if the bud live, it will develop into a specific form of 
i American expectancy tables. 



168 TUE GIST OF IT. 

beauty, and that beyond a certain definite measure 
of unfolding it cannot go? Go to the forest, and 
from the beautifully woven bird's nest hanging on 
the outer branches of some lofty tree, rocked by every 
breeze that breathes through the quiet woods, dan- 
cing and coquetting with the green leaves and golden 
sunbeams ; or from the humbler structure of sticks 
and clay, or rudely interwoven grasses, put solidly in 
the fork of the branches of a low-growing shrub, — 
take the new-laid egg, and note its beautiful shad- 
ings and marking of bright colors, or its more modest 
dottings of white and gray and brown. If you have 
studied such things, you can tell just what kind of a 
bird will come from that egg. You can describe ex- 
actly its size and form, the color of its plumage, the 
notes of its song, its food, its habits, its power of 
flight, — all about it, in fact, almost as perfectly as 
though it were flying before your eyes, flashing its 
colors in the sunshine, and making the tree-tops vocal 
with its melodious song. 

Now go to the cradle, and look at the infant boy of 
three months, laughing and crowing in baby glee, or 
lying in careless sleep. Can you predict the future 
of that boy ? As Mrs. Browning says, 1 — 

" A solemn thing it is to me 

To look upon a babe that sleeps, 

Wearing in its spirit-deeps 
The undeveloped mystery 

Of our Adam's taint and woe, 
Which, when they developed be, 

Will not let it slumber so ; 
Lying new in life beneath 

i Isobel's Child, § ix. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 169 

The shadow of the coming death, 
With that soft, low, quiet breath, 

As if it felt the sun ; 
Knowing all things by their blooms. 
Not their roots, yea, sun and sky 
Only by the warmth that comes 
Out of each ; earth only by 

The pleasant hues that o'er it run ; 
And human love by drops of sweet 

White nourishment still hanging round 
The little mouth so slumber-bound : 
All which broken sentiency 
And conclusion incomplete, 

Will gather and unite, and climb 
To an immortality 

Good or evil, each sublime, 
Through life and death to life again. 
O little lids, now folded fast, 
Must ye learn to drop at last 
Our large and burning tears? 
O warm quick body, must thou lie, 
When the time comes round to die, 

Still from all the whirl of years, 
Bare of all the joy and pain ? 
O small frail being, wilt thou stand 
At (rod's right hand, 
Lifting up those sleeping eyes 
Dilated by great destinies, 
To an endless waking? thrones and seraphim, 
Through the long ranks of their solemnities, 
Sunning thee with calm looks of Heaven's surprise, 

But thine alone, on Him ? 
Or else, self-willed, to tread the Godless place, 
(God keep thy will !) feel thine own energies 
Cold, Strong, objectless, like a dead man's clasp, 
Tin' sleepless, deathless life within thee grasp, 
While myriad faces, like oik; changeless face, 
With woe, not love's, shall glass thee everywhere, 
And overcome thee with thine own despair?" 



170 TUE GIST OF IT. 

Plato, Demosthenes, Julius Caesar, Luther, Shak- 
spere, Napoleon, Lincoln, — all were once like this 
child, with their future just as uncertain as his. 
Judas Iscariot, Nero, Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, 
John Wilkes Booth, Guiteau, were just as innocent 
and hopeful in their baby days as this little one. 
Will he grow up to be a wealthy merchant, an elo- 
quent orator, a great statesman, a man — whatever 
his station — of honor, integrity, and reliability ? or 
will he develop into an inefficient worker, an unsafe 
office-holder, a besotted drunkard, or a great criminal 
over whose last days the gloom of prison or the gal- 
lows will fall? What is his specific talent? Will 
he have a turn for machinery, and take his place 
among those to whom the world is indebted for the 
appliances which direct its use of Nature's forces? 
Will his taste be for scientific investigation, so that 
he will work in that long list of noble names who 
have thus far unravelled so much of the secret pro- 
cesses of Nature, and broadened and bettered life 
thereby ? Or will he be inclined to literary pursuits, 
and spend his energies by pen and voice in cheering, 
counselling, helping, his fellows, as so many of immor- 
tal memory have done, strengthening and sweetening 
all life by his truthful, attractive words ? 

How do you know? How can you tell? You 
may guess about it all day, but what are your 
guesses worth ? Heredity is something ; but Aaron 
Burr's parents were among the choice ones of the 
earth. Training is more ; but Burns had all the 
influences of an ideal Scotch Christian home about 
him until his twenty-first year, yet he wasted his 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 171 

talents, alienated those who would gladly have aided 
him, wrecked more than one innocent maiden's life, 
and, ere he had entered the prime of manly vigor, 
sank into his grave, where we would fain bury with 
him all of his life but his exquisite poetry. Circum- 
stance and opportunity have much to do with all 
men's future life ; but Lincoln was a rail-splitter, 
while Charles I. of England had the wealth and 
learning of his age about him, and was heir to the 
throne from which afterward he went to the block. 
Educational advantages are of great value ; but 
Elihu Burritt, studying his books while bending 
over the forge and anvil, acquired a scholarship 
which gave him world-wide renown. Many a college 
boy to-day, with the products of the research and 
learning of all ages at his hand, with earnest, schol- 
arly, energetic teachers to aid him, and with his time 
all his own to devote to study if he will, fritters away 
his time, and goes from the commencement exercises 
into the great, busy world, without a bit of solid 
acquisition to show for all his years of schooling, 
and finds the hard- working apprentice at whom lie, 
a- a student, sneered, rising in prominence and influ- 
ence, while he is merged in the crowd of those who 
must watch the active world rush by, careless even 
of their existence. 

All these outer influences are helpful ; but they 
are determined, in the measure of their efficiency, by 
the character of the free Bpiril of the individual, so 

that each truly makes his own future. All helps are 
useless in the hands of the sluggard and spendthrift : 

the man of true power will make lesser advantage 9 



172 THE GIST OF IT. 

tell in producing immeasurably greater results. 
There is, then, good reason that the fond mother, 
bending lovingly over the cradle, should question 
and plan for her boy ; and her eyes brighten and her 
face mantles with honorable pride, as she pictures 
for him a bright, useful, noble future ; but her cheek 
blanches, and a sickening chill goes through her 
heart, when she remembers how dark and miserable 
and infamous that future may be, and she clasps him 
to her bosom wishing that she might ever keep him as 
safe and innocent as now. 

Some one has said, "We like the boys for what 
they promise to become, but we love the girls for 
what they are." An innocent maiden, just entering 
pure womanhood, is as an opening rose, on whose 
half-unfolded petals of cream-tinted velvet the morn- 
ing breath of balmy June scatters dewy pearls of 
glistening iridescence. But behind her lie the years 
of childhood, when training and education, heart- 
culture and watchful care, protected her from the 
infection of evil associations and the blight of inner 
corruption, and guided and disciplined her affectional 
nature and moral power in their rich unfolding. 
Before her stretch the years of maturity, in which 
Mrs. Browning and Jean Ingelow, George Eliot and 
Mrs. Burnett, Florence Nightingale and Rosa Bon- 
heur, Christine Nilsson and Jenny Lind, George 
Washington's mother and a host of others such as 
she, with the increasing number of those who in use- 
ful professions are helping and blessing the world, 
beckon to limitless scholarship, influence, and honor ; 
while Catherine de Medicis, "Bloody" Mary, the 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 173 

gossips and busybodies of every community, who so 
mar and hinder all that is good, and the unknown 
number of those pitiable unfortunates who wreck 
heart and soul in open shame, warn of the fearful 
depths into which anger and self-will, hatred and 
jealousy, passion and lack of self-control, lead both 
the stubborn and the unwary. The increasing recog- 
nition of the equality of the sexes, and the newly 
opening lines of employment for woman, give fresh 
and more intense interest to the problem, What is 
the possible measure, and what will be the character, 
of the development of the girls? Our American 
society needs to be awakened to the fact that in a 
cultured and ennobled, as well as pure, womanhood, 
the safety of the nation is vitally concerned. 

Life is full of duties. Some press daily, in an 
ever-recurring order, in home-life and in business 
occupations. Others come at rarer intervals, and, 
perchance, in combinations which are not repeated. 
Often conflicting demands and openings for employ- 
ment arise, and it becomes a task of great difficulty 
to determine t lie balance of opposing duties. The 
discussion of the nature, ground, and classification 
of these duties must be reserved for another chapter. 
Here only the fact is important. No moment of 
time, no phase of circumstances, in all life, is free 
from duty. At every instant, in every place, obli- 
gations crowd upon men, and the effort to rightly 
discharge them will tax the largest and noblest 
nature to the utmost. Many of the greatest men 
of the race have been so impressed with this con- 



174 THE GIST OF IT. 

stant rush of obligation, that they have made 
" Duty " the watchword, of their lives. Words- 
worth gives exquisite expression to this sentiment 
in an " Ode to Duty," which culminates in these 
stanzas : — 

" Stern Lawgiver ! yet thou dost wear 
The Godhead's most benignant grace ; 
Nor know we any thing so fair 
As is the smile upon thy face. 
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds 
And fragrance in thy footing treads ; 
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong ; 
And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and 



To humbler functions, awful Power ! 

I call thee : I myself commend 

Unto thy guidance from this hour ; 

Oh, let my weakness have an end ! 

Give unto me, made lowly wise, 

The spirit of self-sacrifice ; 

The confidence of reason give ; 

And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live! " 

A young man who wishes to obtain a government 
appointment as cadet in West Point or Annapolis, 
willingly devotes himself for months to preparation 
for the entrance examinations. The student who 
aspires to eminence in scholarship must frequently 
submit to tests of his acquisition and power. Such 
are regarded as exceptional cases, and )'oung people 
in ordinary life rejoice in their freedom from all 
examinations. Their notion is a pleasant one, but 
it is an egregious error. At no period in a person's 



TUE FACTS OF LIFE. 175 

life can it be said that he is not being, in some way, 
and by some one, tested. . The young clerk, who, in 
the absence of his employer, assumes lordly airs, and 
forgets to be obliging to the humblest customers, 
may think he is thereby manifesting his manly 
dignity ; but, in reality, he is proving that there 
exists in himself a weakness which cannot endure 
even so slight a strain upon it, and judgments are 
being formed about him which will retard all his 
future advancement. The young woman, in her 
quiet routine of home and social life, is not aware 
that she is being tried. Often her tones would be 
gentler, and her manner more sober, if she knew 
that those for whose good will she most cares were 
watching her, and forming conclusions regarding her. 
It is in the little tilings of life, when one is uncon- 
scious of others, and acts with free spontaneity, that 
the real character is oftenest shown ; and hence, 
most people, without stopping to philosophize on 
the matter, make up their opinions of each other 
on this basis. 

These constantly occurring tests are, first, of one's 
abilities. It is a small tiling for a boy to be asked 
to direct a stranger on his way in a city: but the 
promptness and clearness of his answer show if his 
observation i> keen and accurate, Ids memory reten- 
tive, and his Ideas clean-cut; and these are basal 

qualities in business prosperity. The little annoy- 
ance- nt' life are trivial in themselves; but they 
reveal 0116*8 power to control himself, and another's 
weakness before even slight obstacles. Continually, 

in numberless ways, one's power of exertion, self- 



176 THE GIST OF IT. 

control, fitness for specific kinds of employment, 
depth of feeling, strength of sympathy, are being 
tried ; and our recognition, and reception of confi- 
dence, are determined by the results of these tests. 

Besides the abilities, the resources, or acquired 
powers and stores, of a man are subjected to con- 
stant trial. The head of a machine-shop is suddenly 
called away, and puts one of his subordinates in 
charge. In the emergency, the success of the sub- 
ordinate's discharge of the greater responsibility 
will be settled by the measure of knowledge and 
efficiency which he- has acquired above the needs 
of his regular work. A great reserve force of 
energy and knowledge is essential in every life, 
for all are met by unexpected circumstances which 
demand more of them than their usual duties. Sick- 
ness of a serious form attacks a man : his recovery 
will largely depend on his own reserve power of 
nerve and will, and the resources of strength in 
his attendants, which enable both to endure un- 
wonted and long-continued strain. The teacher 
who knows no more of his subjects than can be 
learned from the text-books he uses, or who does 
not understand the relations of his own to other 
departments of study, is frequently mortified by the 
legitimate but unforeseen questions of his pupils. 
The Jesuits have a maxim, Give us the first six 
} r ears of a child's life, and we care not who has 
the remainder. Some writer has undertaken to 
demonstrate that half a man's actual knowledge is 
obtained in the first five years of life. Both state- 
ments are fallacious; but they imply what every 



TI1E FACTS OF LIFE. 177 

parent's experience emphasizes, the breadth and 
certainty of information and accumulation of re- 
serve force, which every one who would best train 
even the little children must possess. 

Character is every day revealing itself, and being 
put to trial, in the most unimportant matters. Here 
is a striking instance : One afternoon recently, in 
a little Western city, a young lady and her escort 
were walking home from town, and met a company 
of laborers coming home from their work. The men 
had been boring a well, and naturally were covered 
with quite obvious marks of their toil. One of them, 
the roughest and muddiest of the entire number, was 
smoking a clay pipe. As every one knows, it is a 
point of honor among young men of fashion and cul- 
ture (?) to take particular pains always, when they 
are smoking on the street, to puff the smoke of their 
cigars into the face of every lady they meet. So 
general is this practice, that one is hardly " proper " 
who docs otherwise. But this toil-stained Irish 
laborer, whose' touch would be contamination to the 
dude, had a nubility of nature and a delicacy of 
sentiment better than all their wealth and learning 
ami polish. Before he met the young lady, without 
any apparent special thoughtfulness, he took the 
pipe from hi8 mouth, covered the bowl witli his 
hand, ami held it down at his side until he had 

passed by. 

A young woman is an.xiuus to retain the regard 
of one of her friends. Hut one day, when she is 
unaware that he is within hearing, Bhe sharply 
chides a youuger sister, or spitefully replies to her 



178 THE GIST OF IT. 

mother, and wipes out in an instant the kindly im- 
pressions made by perhaps months of pleasant inter- 
course. Frequently a glance of the eye will reveal 
the true character, and flatly contradict the spoken 
sentiments. A man of high temper may suppose his 
infirmity mastered, when, in a moment of careless- 
ness, a slight annoyance meets him, and he finds 
the trouble as much alive as ever. In ways with- 
out number, we are every day subjected to experi- 
ences which develop and manifest the character; 
and he is a wise man who learns how best, from 
all such events, to mould and discipline his own 
nature into proper subjection and harmony. 

Besides these constant trials in every-day life, 
there is another form of test for which the young 
person must make preparation. There comes, once 
or oftener, in every life, a trial in which every parti- 
cle of strength in the entire nature is drawn out ; 
and, if the strain come upon a weak point in the 
character, the individual is wrecked. It may be in 
some business misfortune or family trouble, under 
the pressure of which the man loses heart and hope, 
and gives up all effort by leaving the country, or, 
it may be, taking his own life. Or, in some great 
emergency, a difficult duty may be laid upon a man 
in defending those who rightly look to him for pro- 
tection ; but he flinches from it, and ever after bears 
the reproach, in his own consciousness at least, which 
always follows a failure to meet unquestioned duty. 
Or, again, the great opportunity of a man's life may 
come to him ; but because he has wasted time, and 
not prepared himself for it, or has entangled himself 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 179 

in objectionable associations, he may be unable to 
improve it. It is no unknown thing for a merchant 
to say of one of his clerks, " He is just the man, in 
many respects, for this important work ; but I do 
not like the company he keeps ; or, this qualifica- 
tion — which he might have had — is lacking." 

Thus, almost always, in some concrete experience, 
each one is some time brought squarely to the de- 
termination of the strength, harmony, and rectitude 
of his character ; and the form and measure of all 
his after development and influence are settled by 
the issue of the trial. Not knowing when or where 
or how this test will come, he who would not make 
shipwreck of reputation and life, will use all means 
to guard and strengthen and enrich his nature, until 
it is ready for any contingency. 

Every person hopes for success in life. Whatever 
the phase of activity, each expects, with more or less 
certainty, to attain the object of his efforts. Were 
it not so, there would be no stimulus to exertion be- 
yond what the bare necessities of existence required, 
and all the productive energy everywhere manifested 
would be suffered to run to waste. Yet all are 
sometimes disappointed, and many find their most 
cherished plans defeated. People of pessimistic ten- 
dencies, out of the bitterness of sore personal disap- 
pointment and the observation of wide-spread sorrow. 
despite the joy and hopefulness of the prosperous, 
affirm the universal and necessary outcome of life to 
be failure and raiserj r . 

They point to the scholar of prominence and honor, 



180 THE GIST OF IT. 

and tell of the hidden grief which has saddened all 
his life. The speculator has amassed wealth, but it 
has been at the expense of friends and health. The 
laborer is happy in his humble home, but is liable to 
all the privations and anxieties of small wages and 
uncertain employment. The political leader is ele- 
vated to high office, but his good name is at the 
mercy of every vile person in the nation : honorable 
office-holding may be followed by mean obscurity, or 
the bullet of the assassin may, while he is in the 
zenith of power, cut short his career. So in every 
life these philosophers find something, which, cancer- 
like, eats out the heart of all successes, and makes 
the appearance of prosperity but a sham. 

It is unquestionably true that failure and sorrow 
come to every one in some form and measure, and 
the world is full of those who have made utter ship- 
wreck of all hopes and purposes. The student who 
tries for a degree for which his abilities do not fit 
him, and the merchant who plans his business on a 
scale beyond the limit of his capital, both alike fail. 
The young lawyer who has neglected to read broadly, 
and familiarize himself with many spheres of fact and 
truth, is called upon to conduct an important case, 
wherein success means for him a rapid increase of 
reputation and practice, but, because of his scanty 
resources, cannot grapple with the questions involved, 
and, to his shame and irreparable injury, fails. 

The student for the ministry who is blinded to the 
conditions of future usefulness by present opportuni- 
ties for work and prominence, may be faithful to the 
letter of his class-room duties, but forgets, in the col- 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 181 

lege and seminary, to train himself to careful think- 
ing, and, by his own independent study, get a masterj- 
in all their relations, of the doctrines to whose proc- 
lamation and defence he expects to devote his life. 
Hebrew is too hard ; textual criticism is only for 
specialists ; church government is a bore ; theology 
is dry ; science, philosophy, and literature, require too 
much time for him — with his numerous invitations 
to preach, and frequent meetings, — to think of get- 
ting a grasp of them ; and careful study and analysis 
of his own and other's heart-life, in order to philo- 
sophically develop right life and moral power in him- 
self and those about him, is for those only who aspire 
to eminence as theologians ; practical efficiency re- 
quires no such erudition. By and by, however, in 
his settled work, he finds troublesome questions con- 
tinually put at him by the inquiring and sceptical ; 
points in translation and exegesis, the bearing on his 
teachings of scientific and literary thought and prog- 
ress, practical questions of church organization and 
law, arc pressed upon him ; phases of character of 
which he never dreamed present themselves, and he 
cannot analyze and deal with them aright. Lacking, 
thus, breadth, depth, and solidity, of learning, thor- 
ough, symmetrical, discipline of his powers, ready to 
fall a prey to any theological ign%8 fatun*, in the 
pressure of crowding duties he has no opportunity to 
make up his deficiencies, soon ceases to be a leader 
and moulder of thought, and, even though he fall into 

the snare of Sensationalism, and for a time secure, by 
his DOVelties, attention and notoriety, while still in 

the prime of life he passes the "dead line," and fails. 



182 THE GIST OF IT. 

Most pitiable and most common are the failures in 
character. All about us are moral wrecks, — men 
who, in positions of trust and honor, could not resist 
the allurements of speculation and self-gratification, 
and, betraying the confidence reposed in them, failed ; 
women who, in the thrill of great temptation, fell and 
failed. These are but extreme, though sadly frequent, 
illustrations. The man who has acquired a reputa- 
tion for lying or petty meanness has failed ; and 
" failure " is branded on the woman in whom selfish- 
ness and envy have stifled sympathy and charity, 
developed backbiting and scandal. 

It is, then, a pertinent inquiry, What is meant by 
success in life ? Is there any thing worthy of the 
name which is entitled to a place in our summary of 
the facts of life ? Speaking broadly, the man succeeds 
who gets that for which he strives. If a man resolves 
to become an adept in gambling, and accomplishes 
his purpose, he succeeds, in this general sense, just 
as certainly as the man who determines to make him- 
self a master in some department of the law, and 
carries out his intention. 

Scarce any one, though, will question the proposi- 
tion that the real measure and value of success turn 
on the character of the object sought. The woman 
who, to gratify her wounded vanity, attempts to 
malign a rival in fashion, and does injure that one's 
reputation and influence, finds, by and by, her suc- 
cess recoiling on her in the sting of remorse or the 
shame of detection and exposure. Mean, miserly, 
mischievous, purposes do not, in their realization, 
bring true success. Any achievement which results 



TEE FACTS OF LIFE. 183 

in the debasement of heart and will, or carries with 
it a reproach which poisons all the satisfaction of 
accomplishment, cannot be a true success. The man 
who fails in business in such a way as to cast reflec- 
tion on himself, may have succeeded in making money 
by the operation; but the loss of the respect of his 
fellows, and the sense of his own perfidy, mark his 
effort as really a failure. 

From all the preceding, it follows that success can 
only be affirmed of the man whose purpose has been 
to develop symmetrically his own nature, 1 and direct 
it in the working-out of plans in whose accomplish- 
ment his entire being will find employment and satis- 
faction. The man who has given himself absolutely 
to money-getting, and stifled all his sympathies, and 
denied himself all culture and comfort lest it inter- 
fere with his one object, succeeds in getting the for- 
tune, but loses the joy and sweetness of life, which 
money can neither buy nor supplant, and dwarfs and 
deadens the best parts of his being. On the other 
hand, eminent culture, acquired at the expense of 
health with which to use it, is only half a success; 
while letters of gold flash the tribute "successful" 
over the life of him who rounded his whole being into 
healthy completeness, and stood a "full man " in all 
his relationships, subduing nature, helping and ad- 
vancing men in all ways which offered to him. 

More than this, seeming defeats are often the 
means of the truest successes. A college student, 
:• for excellence and distinction, becomes ab- 
sorbed in intellectual culture until he forgets the 
i Pp. BO, 51. 



184 THE GIST OF IT. 

need for sympathy and helpfulness in his associa- 
tions; but a crushing defeat, in the failure to obtain 
a prize on which his heart was set, takes away his 
self-centered ambition, and in the broadening and 
softening of his nature he learns the secret of an in- 
fluence greater and better than he had ever hoped to 
win. The life of a young married couple has gone 
on smoothly from the first. With ample means, 
pleasant surroundings, and unbroken mutual affec- 
tion, their happiness seems complete. Business re- 
verses come to the young man, and his disappointment 
is embittered by the thought of the privation to which 
he must subject his wife ; but in the development and 
manifestation of increased devotion, of a depth and 
tenderness of affection beyond their largest expecta- 
tions, they find not only a comfort in their trouble, 
but that which repays them immeasurably for it all, 
and fits them better to work anew for prosperity. 

There is, then, success attainable in life. In its 
apparent form it is the securing of some specific ob- 
ject. In its true form it is the right education of the 
individual, and the harmonious use of all his powers 
in the performance of duty, and prosecution of com- 
prehensive and unselfish purposes. Its attainment 
is possible and easy for those who carefully conserve 
the laws of their own nature and the conditions of 
their operation ; while those who disregard, or set 
themselves against, the principles of their own being 
and situation, may reach great results in specific 
lines, but, in the true signification of the word, must 
and do fail. 



TI1E FACTS OF LIFE. 18$ 



II. 



We are going into death. The love of life is in- 
stinctive and powerful, triumphing over poverty, 
disease, injustice, shame, and disgrace ; clinging fre- 
quently to the veriest shreds of existence, and dis- 
puting, inch by inch, and moment by moment, the 
conquering advance of the grim king of terrors. 
Yet the fact stands out in bold relief — draped 
with the somber emblems of myriads of past mourn- 
ers, made more intensely dark and black by the 
lambent flames of Greek and Hindoo funeral-pvres, 
and resounding in hollow echo the sad dirge and 
pitiful wail of sorrowing humanity — that man must 
die. 

Hark ! the church-bell's muffled tolling breaks upon 
the ear, its sweet tones trembling with the weight 
of human grief. Come: let us, witli the company of 
sympathizing friends, take our places in the house 
of God. The deep-voiced organ rolls and peals its 
d, majestic, quivering harmony, pouring forth in 
strain- of richest pathos the old, )et ever new, lament 
of bei irts anguished by the death of loved ones. Up 
the broad aisle, leading the bowed forms of stricken 
relatives and friends, is borne the long and narrow 
coffin, wherein repose the Last remains of him who 
late was in full strength. Hear those choked, heart- 
king sobs, and let Your own tears flow without 

rain! \ "in- was the only son of his mother, and 
she was a widow." Listen to the tender servi 
making more vivid, by its touching sympathy, the 

,'• word- of comfort and help- 



186 THE GIST OF IT. 

fulness, telling of hope and joy beyond the gloom of 
present separation. 

Now come to the city of the dead, and, in among 
its grassy mounds and stately monuments, stand be- 
side the new-made grave. It is a dark and narrow 
opening. Watch how the coffined corpse is lowered 
into the earth ; listen with reverent, uncovered head 
to the last words of farewell — and come away. Your 
heart is full of sadness for your dead and sorrowing 
acquaintance. 

But, my friend, you, too, must die. Sometime your 
beaming eyes will lose their light, your heart grow 
cold and still, and loving friends will bury from their 
sight your form, now full of life and joy. Certain, 
unavoidable, across your path the same dread pres- 
ence stands, and into its dark shadow every hour of 
time is speeding you. Many years may lie before you. 
Care and energy may enable you to pass in safety 
more than one crisis, but you cannot escape. The 
end will come. Resistless, relentless, remorseless, the 
great enemy stands athwart your way, and in the last 
inevitable contest with him you are doomed to fail. 

Death is the end of all things earthly for a man. 
One may for many years control a business in a city 
or country from which he is absent. But when he 
dies, all his connections and activities in this world 
cease. The business speculation which required his 
continued management to succeed falls to the ground. 
His long-estranged friend, hurrying to greet him, 
comes too late, and finds his words of reconciliation 
never oan be heard. Many times weeping friends 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 187 

may visit his tomb, storms may sweep over it, social 
strife, pestilence, and war, may rage about his old 
haunts, but he lias gone beyond the 

" Stream, whose narrow tide 
The known and unknown worlds divide, 

Where all must go. 
Its waveless waters, dark and deep, 
'Mid sullen silence downward sweep, 

With noiseless flow." 

Go to the river, where its deep, swift current flows 
noiselessly and with placid surface in a smooth bed. 
Drop into the waters a stone. The water plashes, 
and a series of waves run circling across the stream. 
In a few moments all is quiet, and no evidence of the 
disturbance remains. Try the same experiment in 
turbulent water, and the resulting waves are almost 
instantly broken and absorbed by the on-rushing, 
noisy flood. Go to the mill, and from the hopper, 
level full of wheat, take out a grain: would you 
know its absence? but it had its specific place. 
Take out ;i handful. The moving grain fills up the 
vacancy, and no trace is left of the effect of your 
action. The wild pigeons are flying in solid pha- 
lanx over your head. With your gun you kill one, 
and it falls. The others fill up his place, and the 
line sweeps on. 

All arc fit symbols. A man may be high in sta- 
tion, and for months a nation may watch in anxious 

suspense beside his bed. When he is dead, and the 

; antrv and excitemenl of burial arc over, his 
place La filled, his interests pa^.> into other hands, and 



188 TUE GIST OF IT. 

the nation rushes on as before. His work as a man 
on earth is done. His record is complete. His 
influence continues, and may be of great and lasting 
power. But it is the influence of a past activity. 
His personal, voluntary, agency among men is forever 
ended. 

By long observation, statistics are gathered from 
which an average length of life is found. Yet who 
can say of any individual how long or short his life 
may be ? At any moment death may come, or it may 
delay for long years. " Of the day and hour of his 
death knoweth no man," is the world's experience. 

Nor can the place of death be foretold. One man 
dies in his bed, surrounded by friends gathered to 
bid him farewell. Schuyler Colfax dropped dead in 
a railroad-station as he came in from a train. 
Admiral Coligny was murdered by the hired assas- 
sins of Charles IX. of France in the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew. Stonewall Jackson was slain on the 
battle-field as he urged his troops in conflict. 

The means of death are no more certain than its 
place and time. It can ride on a bullet or a thunder- 
bolt, spring from the point of a knife or a rattle- 
snake's fangs, lie hidden in a cup of poison, or riot 
in the madness of fever, wear out its victim with lin- 
gering torture, or snatch his life so quickly from him 
that he has no consciousness of pain. No man can 
absolutely depend on an hour of life. At any mo- 
ment, in any place, by an}' means, expected or 
unlooked for, death may come, and summon him to 
join the innumerable caravan that moves 



TnE FACTS OF LIFE. 189 

"To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take 
II is chamber in the silent halls of death." 

This is a world of living men. As each one vacates 
his place, it is filled, and he passes away from it for- 
. . Thus each must go ; and whatever he hopes 
to be and do among men, must be accomplished 
before his certain death. For then "man goeth to 
his long home. . . . The dust returns to the earth 
as it was, and the spirit to God Who gave it." 

III. 

We are going into — what, beyond the grave? 
'•If a man die, shall he live again?" has been the 
question of all ages. 

before us in our journey broods a mist upon the ground; 
Thither leads the path we walk in, blending with that gloomy 
bound. 

• hath pierced its shadows to the mystery they screen : 
Those, *.\ ho I within it, nevermore on earth are 

beside US, now at seeming distance 
lov. 

ii.it tempt us onward, bright with summer 
green nd 

I there our journey ends at last ; 
id ire enter, and arc gathered to tin- past." 1 

On this ftide standing, as our friends go from us, 

. borne away on the bosom of the cold, 

chilled and drooping, strain 

our feeble Bight t<» piercethe mists, and learn their 

1 Bryanl : Th< ol Death. 



190 THE GIST OF IT. 

final fate. In vain ! No mortal vision can discern 
what lies beyond that dark, that dreadful, flood. 
Our friends were, but are not. We, too, shall soon 
— how soon? — slip from our loved ones, and be car- 
ried out beyond the verge of life. We are but 
human; and the human heart — broken, anguished, 
by the death of dear ones, trembling, shrinking, as it 
nears its own inevitable doom, — pleads, pleads, for 
knowledge, for some certain word concerning that 
which lies beyond the tomb. Does death end all? 
Or is it just the entrance to another life ? Through 
all the ages human reason, searching with the utmost 
care, presents two answers: Death ends all. Death 
is the black-robed gateway to another life. Which 
one of these stands best the tests of human thought? 
Modern materialism, like all its earlier forms, 
asserts that with the body the spirit is destroyed ; 
that the spirit can have no existence save in the 
body, and hence must perish with it. The positive 
statements of many writers on this subject would 
lead one to suppose that science has demonstrated, 
beyond all doubt, that in death man's existence 
wholly and forever ends ; that to hold a contrary 
opinion is to put one's self among the most unenlight- 
ened of men. It is, however, a peculiarit}^ of materi- 
alism, that, in every generation, it announces its 
conclusions as mathematically proven, absolutely 
certain. It is a strangely coincident peculiarity of 
mankind, that they persist in beliefs contrary to these 
"axioms" of materialism. Men may sometimes be 
slow in accepting scientific discoveries, but they do 
accept them. It is true that the assertion that the 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 191 

sun is the center of the solar system involved poor 
Galileo in serious difficulty with the Church and 
State authorities. But to-day, when some one, like 
Rev. Jasper a few years ago, still insists that the sun 
revolves around the earth, the world simply laughs 
at him. 

Despite the wide-spread influence of custom and 
prejudice, men will not always hold to that which is 
conclusively shown to be false. The controlling 
thought, the profound convictions, of the race will 
and do get hold of the truth. Why is it, then, if 
there is no evidence whatever of life beyond the 
grave, that men in all times and countries still believe 
in it? The Egyptians carefully embalmed their dead, 
and wound in with the corpse a statement of its life 
and deeds, to present before the great Judge in the 
world of shadows. The Persians tell us in their reli- 
gion of tin' abodes of good and bad men in the future. 
Many nations, like the Greeks and Romans, have 
had a form of ancestor-worship. The most enlight- 
ened people of the world to-day, the Anglo-Saxons, 
testify to their belief in a future life by all their 
religious rites and their treatment of the dead. 

Unless, therefore, we are to admit that the small 
percentage of humanity, who put forward this hy- 
pothesis, are the only ones who can fairly be termed 
rational, we must conclude that their claim of posi- 
tive demonstration i> unfounded, and that the hy- 
pothesis is, at the very Least, still on trial. 

This hypothesis rests on "tic of two assumptions: 
either the spirit is material, Like the body; or the spirit's 

vitally dependent on that of the body. 



192 THE GIST OF IT. 

The first of these assumptions has been frequently 
referred to in this discussion. Granting its truth, 
the denial of a future life is scientifically impossible. 
On this hypothesis, man is simply the highest prod- 
uct of necessarily evolving Nature. The material 
universe is practically infinite. There are doubtless 
forces and phases of life in it of which we know 
nothing as yet. But how is it possible, unless our 
knowledge of the material universe be exhaustive, 
to dogmatically affirm that the development in it 
ceases with the present life of man ? 

Further, if a man's present existence is wholly due 
to the action of Nature, so that he is the result of a 
specific and natural combination of physical elements 
and forces, it follows that after his death Nature may 
repeat the same combination of forces and elements, 
and the same man will again come into being. An 
oak is the product of the organization of certain 
forces and elements, under the control of a specific 
life-force. Let the oak be cut down and burned, 
and its ashes scattered abroad. But suppose, in 
process of time, every particle of matter and force 
once in the oak is brought back to that place ; sup- 
pose the same life-force which once before organized 
them, again weaves them into one whole ; the result 
will necessarily be, not simply an oak, like the one 
destroyed, but the oak, precisely the same one which 
before stood in that spot, restored to the minutest 
detail. 

Even more : the identity of the oak resides in the 
life-force, not in the components which it organizes ; 
for these change constantly during the lifetime of 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 193 

the tree. Hence, it is not necessary that any thing 
be restored but the life-force ; and it, with materials 
similar to those used before, would weave anew the 
identical oak which before existed in that place. 
The probability of such an occurrence may be ques- 
tioned; but its possibility, on the assumed hypothesis, 
cannot be doubted. 

From this, however, another principle necessarily 
flows. Nature's power to cause man's existence at 
all is the essential point, not the specific form of his 
existence ; for that changes many times during life. 
It must be concluded, then, that the power of Nature, 
which causes a man to exist in this life, may cause 
him to exist in some other form ; just as, on the same 
hypothesis, the power of Nature preserves the exist- 
ence of wheat through all its changes of form, from 
the bare seed to the ripened head of grain. The 
hypothesis necessitates the idea of the possibility of 
a future life. Whether or not their exact idea be 
accepted, Stewart and Tait, in the " Unseen Uni- 
verse," have demonstrated that physical science 
affords no basis for the denial of a possible life 
beyond the grave. 

One step Fiirt her may be taken. If the hypothesis 
of the persistence of force be true, and the spirit is 
but a form of force, then its immortality is positively 
assured ; for oil this hypothesis no force can ever be 
destroyed. It. is objected that this does not insure 
;i personal immortality; that it means simply an 
immortality of force, not of the form which thai force 
assumes. Hut this Loses Bight of the fact, that, if the 
hypothesis be true, if the entire universe of being 



194 THE GIST OF IT. 

is reducible to matter, force, and gravitation, and 
explainable in terms of matter and motion, then 
present facts must be reconcilable with the hypothesis. 
The present fact is personality, the existence of mul- 
titudes of individuals, whose personal identity and 
distinctness are absolute. If this fact be accordant 
with the hypothesis, it is a needless fear, a gratui- 
tous assumption, which admits or claims that the 
hypothesis indicates, much less proves, the cessation 
of conscious personal existence at death. Material- 
ism in any form is open to this construction. Hence, 
Physicus' despair of a future life, on his own materi- 
alistic premises, is unnecessary. 

The assumption, however, that the spirit is mate- 
rial, or a function of matter, has been found invalid. 
Much confusion of thought often arises from the 
supposition that substance must of necessity be per- 
ceptible by the bodily senses, extended, heavy, — be, 
in short, material. Yet the only essential attributes 
of substance are existence, persistence, and energy. 
Spirit and matter both possess these. Both, there- 
fore, are substances. But their special properties 
show them to be substances of two wholly different 
kinds. Spirit is self-active, freely exerts its inherent 
energy : matter is without such power, and manifests 
its energy either in resistance or in forces which are 
the products of necessary conditions. Matter is 
extended, divisible, can be seen, touched, smelled, 
tasted : spirit is unextended, a unit, known only by 
consciousness. Matter is devoid of thought and will, 
of self-consciousness, — of personality: these are es- 
sential attributes of spirit, which, by means of them, 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. ' 195 

rises superior to matter, and makes use of it as its 
instrument. 

We come, then, to the second assumption : the 
spirit is in such vital union with the bod} r , that, when 
the body dies, it also perishes. This at once involves 
us in difficulty. Shall we say that spirit is such in 
its essential nature that it cannot exist apart from 
matter? In Chapter III. we found that the Cause 
of the universe is an Infinite Spirit, Creator of both 
matter and mind, and, of necessity, such a Being as 
to have no forced connection with matter. Shall we 
say that the Creator has decreed that the spirit of 
man, though superior to matter, must perish with it? 
It will then be necessary to show where such a proc- 
lamation is found. Is the nature of the created 
human spirit such as to necessitate its destruction 
when the body dies? This is the crucial point. 

The death of the body is possible, because it is an 
organic whole, made up of many parts, all woven 
into one system. When the control of the organiz- 
ing force is broken, the system is dissolved, and the 
various parts are taken off by appropriate agencies. 
If the body were an indivisible, indestructible, 1 unit, 
like the atoms of which it is composed, it, like the 
atom, would persist through, all changes of condition, 
and could be destroyed only by the act of the Cre- 
ator Who gave it being. The spirit of eacli man is 
such a unit, — an indivisible whole. The early Greek 
iulators firs! developed this fact, and after-study 
bul strengthened the position. Consciousness 
is indissoluble. It is the whole man that thinks, the 
1 Indestructible i.-> used In re .1 - <l< fl 1 on p. 107. 



193 THE GIST OF IT. 

whole man that feels, the whole man that wills. All 
the force, therefore, of the physical theory of the 
indestructibility of matter is against the destruction 
of the spirit with the body. 

The fact of personal identity also makes power- 
fully against the lwpothesis. Any part of the body, 
save the " vital" organs, may be taken entirely away, 
and the spirit will retain its full powers. The entire 
body is in a constant process of decay and restora- 
tion, in which every particle of matter in it is, many 
times during life, entirely replaced. While this 
process continues, the spirit retains its unbroken 
existence and unimpaired activities, and always 
knows itself to be the same identical personality. 
If, now, the connection of the spirit with the body 
during life is such that it is not in any way injured 
by these changes in the body, what ground is there 
to infer that in the final dissolution of the body the 
spirit will necessarily be entangled in the same 
destruction ? 

As the body nears the grave, especially in the case 
of those far advanced in life, spirit and bod}' usually 
seem to fail together ; and this fact is triumphantly 
pointed to as settling the question against the future 
life of the spirit. But notice the fallacy of this argu- 
ment. By induction from many cases, the general 
truth is reached, that the powers of body and mind 
apparently fail together, especially in old age. This 
is then put forth as a necessary and universal truth, 
arising out of the essential connection of spirit and 
body. 

But, first, a general truth, and a universal, necessary 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 197 

truth are two very different things. It is a general 
truth that men have the power of locomotion ; but 
it is very far from universal, and is by no means 
necessary. It is a universal and necessary truth 
that a straight line is the shortest distance between 
two points ; and to this, there are no exceptions. 

Secondly, No reason is given in the hypothesis for 
passing from the general truth of experience to the 
necessary and universal truth of existence. It is 
assumed that this phenomenon is due to a real 
diminution in the spirit's powers, and without proof 
the assertion is made. 

Thirdly, A universal and necessary truth, growing 
out of essential properties, conditions, and relations, 
has no exceptions. Life can be produced only from 
pre-existing life, is a necessary truth, derived from 
the nature of life ; and is a universal truth, for no 
exceptions to it can be found, or rationally con- 
ceived : to assume that ever, in any part of the 
universe, Life has been spontaneously generated, is 
to fly in the face of experience, scientific research, 
and the necessary conditions of logical reasoning. 
In the case iii hand, exceptions are numerous. 
Eliot, t lie great apostle to the Indians of New 
I. land, lived to the age of eighty-six years, and 
on the dav of his death, though very frail in body, 

evinced his mental power by teaching a little child 
the Indian alphabet. I Ion. Alexander 1 1. Stephens 

was one of the ablest statesmen produced by the 

South, and retained his mental vigor to the Last. Vet 
he was physically one .,1' the frailesl of men. Almost 
every one's memory retains the sight of some one 



198 TEE GIST OF IT. 

drawing near to death, the body wasted and help- 
less, but the spirit retaining and manifesting un- 
abated vigor, even in the grasp of the last struggle. 
Such exceptions would be impossible, if the hypoth- 
esis in dispute were true. 

Fourthly, We learned in our discussion of inductive 
causes, 1 that, in considering any phenomenon, that 
cause is to be taken as explaining it which is known 
to operate in like phenomena. Now, it has been 
abundantly shown that the body is the mechanism 
of the manifestation and work of the spirit. It fol- 
lows, that any disturbance of the mechanism will 
interfere with that manifestation of spirit-activity. 
But that it does not follow that such interference 
actually impairs the spirit itself, is clearly shown by 
the numerous cases in which severe illness or acci- 
dent enfeebles the body so as to injure its use by the 
spirit, but the activity of the spirit continues in full 
vigor. Not long since, in one of our Western col- 
leges, a young man was prostrated by a severe 
attack of spinal meningitis. So serious was the 
attack that when, after several weeks' battle for 
life, he rose from his bed, the nervous system was 
so shattered as to be almost beyond the control 
of the spirit. It is probable that a very large part 
of the gray matter of his brain was actually de- 
stroyed by the fever, and for some months his 
memory was almost a total blank. Yet, during the 
entire period of illness and convalescence, all the 
spirit-powers were as intensely active as at any time 
of ordinary health ; though frequently the physical 

i P. 98. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 199 

mechanism wholly refused to obey the spirit, and an 
observer would have thought the spirit vitally in- 
jured. Professor Bo wen l relates the remarkable 
of James Kinnard, of Portland, Me., many years 
. who was attacked, while a young man, by an- 
chylosis. Through several years his body gradually 
and completely ossified. Yet, up to the day of his 
death, his spirit-powers manifested perfect integrity 
and great vigor ; and there are still extant literary 
essays of decided merit, composed by him in the 
intervals of comparative rest during the tortures 
of a living death. 

There is, then, no ground for affirming that the 
apparent decline of the spirit-action in old age is 
issarily consequent upon the growing feebleness 
of the body. All that can logically be inferred is 
that the condition of the physical mechanism pre- 
vents the manifestation of the spirit-activity; and 
the presumption is greatly in favor of the continu- 
ance of the full vigor of the spirit, even when the 
mechanism is falling into decay. The hypothesis 
of th" dependence of the spirit on the body for its 
manifestations, explains all the facts. Materialism 
must, then, make good Its own deficiency, and show 
sound reason for abandoning the hypothesis of de- 
pendence in its favor. These things it cannot do. 
This phase of the materialistic hypothesis is, there- 
untenable. 8 



i Bfetaphj ilea and Ethics, pp I 

- While every one adinite thai the body is a condition of the 
spirit's existence In its present form, yeA that Is very fax from 
the Btateuienl that the body i.-> //< condition of the spirit's existence 



200 THE GIST OF IT. 

This hypothesis violates another test of inductive 
causation, — it fails to account for all the facts. It 
is admitted that man has the hope of a future life, 
and that, if that hope be vain, his nature is deprived 
of its full development, his best aspirations are dis- 
appointed : he is, in short, a failure. Every plant, 
and every animal save man, performs, in the ordi- 
nary course of Nature, its full round of functions, 
and perfects its existence. Man's life here is, for the 
vast majority of the race, cut short before it has 
fairly began ; and this not through the competitive 
struggle for existence, which holds in all earthly 
life, but by reason of causes centering ultimately in 
moral corruption. If he survives, his life is con- 
tinued through sorrow and misfortune, and goes 
out without its completeness being in any degree 
attained. If this materialistic hypothesis be true, 
man is a pitiable blunder. With a nature capable 
of limitless expansion, he is cut down before he has 
become fairly ready to develop himself. With mar- 
vellous powers of achievement, he is hampered by 
ignorance and disease, so that only at rarest inter- 
vals can he put forth his full strength. The crea- 
ture of a day, able to traverse the universe in his 
thought, yet forced to work out by miserably weak 
attempts all his knowledge ; lacking the numerous 
instincts which preserve the bodies of animals, yet 
feeble and uncertain in the use of that intellect on 
whose right exercise his very life depends ; sur- 

at all. The caterpillar body is a condition of the existence of the 
butterfly; but it is not the condition, for then the butterfly must 
remain a caterpillar until its death. 



THE GIST OF IT. 201 

rounded on every hand by snares and pitfalls 
against which he must protect himself, but whose 
existence he must learn by painful experience ; 
longing for, yet dreading, a future life, the idea of 
which fills a large part of his thoughts, though for 
such a future he has not the slightest ground to 
hope ; — he goes moaning and groping through life, 
hurting himself at every turn, cheering his broken 
spii it with delusive fancies of rest and joy beyond 
the grave, torturing himself with needless fears of 
future retribution, until he falls into his tomb, — 
the culmination of the entire scheme of earthly 
existence, but the most lamentable miscarriage in 
the universe. 

" No more? A monster, then, a dream, 
A discord. Dragons of the prime, 
That tear each other in their slime, 
Were mellow music matched with him." 1 

and reason, to say nothing of compassion and 
Belf-preservation, demands that any hypothesis leav- 
ing so large ami important a sphere of facts un- 
accounted for, and subjecting man to so grievous a 
pect, be not accepted until the whole round of 
ible causation is investigated, and no other expla- 
nation wliieh will better satisfy the case discovered. 
This hypothesis destroys all stimulus to self-denial 
rder to culture ami helpfulness, ami vitiates all 
I r morality. The Reign of Terror in Prance 
Bhows what men will become when convinced that 
this lit.- is all of their e\i>t« nee. There is then no 

i Tennyson: in Rfemorfam, § 55. 



202 THE FACTS OF LIFE. 

stimulus to effort, save for purely selfish ends, and 
all restraint on passion and greed is removed. " Eat, 
drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die," becomes 
then the profoundest wisdom. There is no such 
thing as crime. Any desire may be gratified by an}' 
means, provided one does not get caught, and visited 
with punishment and disgrace. Expediency is the 
only rational standard of action, and pleasure its 
only guide ; while the basis of all responsibility in 
all private and public relationships is taken away. 

To this it is replied, that, even though there be no 
future life, still one " ought " to strive for noble 
culture and usefulness, and be true to " right " and 
"duty." Very beautiful pictures are sometimes 
drawn of men wholly devoid of all faith in a 
future life, but vindicating their manhood by their 
fidelity to duty and truth, and their efforts to help 
the world about them. All such argument is subtly 
fallacious. The ideas of right and duty look back 
to the Infinite God, forward to the future ; while 
so inwoven with the fiber of man's being is the idea 
of a future life, that, when one thinks he has wholly 
eliminated it from his affirmation of fidelity to duty 
or truth, careful analysis will show that it still colors 
and shapes his conclusions. Its absolute removal 
tends to debase man below the level of the brutes. 

There is no need of further discussion to show that 
the materialistic hypothesis which asserts the death 
of the spirit with that of the body, i s logically defec- 
tive in numerous vital particulars. The claim that 
the spirit is material is wholly untenable. It cannot 
be shown that the decay of the body impairs the 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 203 

spirit, while the presumption that the spirit-activity 
continues unaffected is very strong. This answer to 
the question is thus found false. 

Set over against this hypothesis is that of the 
theist, who maintains that the spirit is unaffected 
by the death of the body, and passes, through death, 
into another and higher stage of existence. 

It is mere commonplace to repeat that this has 
been the belief of all peoples in all times and coun- 
tries. The belief is naturally suggested by the most 
common phenomena. Men develop great power, but 
in the height of their efficiency are suddenly cut down 
by death. The life of every animal is perfect. Man 
is capable of greatest accomplishment, but his life 
is most imperfect and unsatisfying. In every man's 
mind the ideas of absolute right and perfection arise, 
i though dimly and crudely ; but these are never 
attained in this life. The organization of society, 
with its various responsibilities and its natural work- 
ing toward just government; the innate ideas of duty 
and accountability to some Supreme Power: both 
point t<> a moral Governor and a future calling to 
Sin, wrong-doing, cruelty, vice, are anoma- 
lous i the earth, unknown among all animals, 
but the mosl prominent things in man. All these 
• naturally, and almost necessarily, suggest the 
idea that man's life will have another part beyond 
the gra re. 

This is strengthened by other phen< mena, equally 

apparent to the crudely developed mind. In full, 

iug action the Bpirit-activity is constantly mani- 



204 THE GIST OF IT. 

fested. In sleep this is almost wholly withdrawn, 
and the body lies unconscious of any thing in its sur- 
roundings, unheeding the presence and conversation 
of friends. During this time the individual may 
dream, and be seemingly transported to scenes far 
different from those in which the body lies. Such 
things would attract the attention of a rude, simple 
people, even more than they do us to-day, and would 
lead them to suppose the real man to be something 
apart from the body, and capable of leaving it, — else 
how could he have been in those places which so 
vividly impressed him in his dreams? Frequently 
people sleep, and do not consciously dream ; but this 
would not, in the uncultivated mind, disprove the 
other experience, but only show that these journeys 
in sleep were special favors of some higher agencies, 
— good spirits of some kind. Many times people 
faint, or are stunned, or half drowned, when for a 
time all consciousness is lost, and all appearances of 
life disappear : again they are revived, and the full 
evidence of life is shown. Where could the spirit 
have been in the interval? Could it have been 
utterly destroyed ? It must have simply gone away. 
Is it not, then, only a further departure when the 
body crumbles in death ? 

The changes of the seasons add to the force of the 
conviction. The buds swell in spring-time, and the 
fresh young leaves open and push out, just as the chil- 
dren grow. In summer full strength and beauty of 
growth are reached by the plant, as by man. Autumn 
comes on, the ripe fruits are all gathered, and the 
leaves wither and fall, as the fruitage of man's labor 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 205 

is accomplished and his powers lose their bright ac- 
tivity. When winter closes in, the grass is dead, the 
trees stand stripped and lifeless, and man is borne to 
his grave. Why should not man again come into 
life, as plant and tree again in spring put forth their 
leaves, and push out in new growths? The seed is 
put in the earth and decays, but from it springs the 
stalk of growing grain. May not man thus, from 
the decay of the body, leap into a new and fuller life ? 
Like suggestions come from plants such as the anas- 
tasis, or " resurrection flower, of Eastern deserts, 
swept, withered, and almost crisped, by the consum- 
ing blasts, far away from its birthplace, and yet, at 
the touch of moisture in its new home, unfolding its 
shrivelled leaves, and shooting downward its withered 
roots, and putting on again all its lost beauty, till it 
triumphs in a transformation like a resurrection from 
the .l.-ad." 1 

It is not meant that all men, everywhere, have care- 
fully followed out such a course of reasoning; though 
it must he .-aid that the disposition of some writers 
t<> deny all Buch thought-processes of peoples in early 
is of development is Btrangely at variance with 
the witness of our increasing knowledge of them. 2 

i Glllet: God in Truman Thought, p. 788. 

- .1 Picton, 'l'i;'- M\ stery of Matter, p. 222, quotes from 

iin Lubbock a remarkable Instance Illustrating this. It is the 
words <>f a Kaffir, Sekese, to a French traveller, M. Arbrouseille, on 
the subject <<f Christianity, "Tour tidings an' what I want, and I 
ng, before I knew you, as you shall hear and Judge for your- 
self. Twelve y< I ed my flocks. The weather was 

i il down u J a rock, and asked myself sorrowful questions, 

rowful, bees I i unable to answer them. 'Whi 

Is .' on m iiai pillars do thej re i 



206 THE GIST OF IT. 

But by these and other such phenomena, suggestions 
would be made to even the most primitive nations. 
Even to-day the same facts of human nature and 
society constantly afford ground for hope and faith ; 
and the analogies of Nature, though greatly weak- 
ened in their force by scientific progress, are fruitful 
in suggestion and argument to many minds. 

From the study of the nature of man arise numer- 
ous suggestive and forcible arguments in support of 
the theist's hypothesis. Consider the relation of man 
to the rest of the animate creation. It all leads up to 
him, and culminates in his perfection. He is at the 
summit of the scheme of Nature, 1 the highest result 
of its unfolding. His very form is the complete real- 
ization of hints and anticipations all through the sys- 
tem of organized existence below him. It is, then, a 
natural query, Does the development — the cumula- 
tive unfolding — of life in the world reach its ultimate 
perfection in man's present form and condition ? The 
inorganic forces and elements form the permanent 
basis and material for the work of life. Plant life is 



asked myself. ' The waters never weary: they know no other law 
than to flow without ceasing from morning till night, and from night 
till morning; but where do they stop, and who makes them flow thus? 
The clouds also come and go, and burst in water over the earth. 
Whence come they? Who sends them? The diviners certainly do 
not give us rain, for how could they do it ? and why do not I see 
them with my own eyes when they go up to heaven to fetch it? I 
cannot see the wind, but what is it? Who brings it, — makes it 
blow and roar and terrify us ? Do I know how the corn sprouts? 
Yesterday there was not a blade in my field: to-da3 T I returned to the 
field, and found some. Who can have given to the earth the wisdom 
and the power to produce it? ' Then I buried my head in both my 
hands." 
» P. 83. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 207 

for the uses of animal life. Animal life is perfected 
in the body of man as the instrument of spirit. The 
first three forms are perfect, each in itself, and fitted 
for the use of the next higher. Spirit is related to no 
higher form to which it is subservient as an instru- 
ment, and does not attain perfection here. Hence it 
is a presumption, made very strong by the law of con- 
tinuity, that man's spirit must somewhere attain per- 
fection ; and for this a future life is necessary. 1 

The relation of spirit and body is that of two dis- 
tinct substances in such connection as to enable one 
to control and use the other. The human body is 
distinctively a mechanism. But a mechanism is dis- 
tinct from the operator controlling it. Here is the 
trouble with Plato's beautiful illustration in which 
he Likened the spirit in the body to the harmony in 
a harp. If the harp be destroyed, the harmony can 
no longer be awakened. We may conceive of the 
harmony as an idea : but its actual existence is in 
vital connection with the harp, and it can be mani- 
ed only when the harp is in perfect order. Har- 
mony, apart from any Bpecific instrument in which 

3 manifested, is a mere abstraction; and he 
the analogy fails. The relation is rather that of the 
harper to the harp, — a wonderful connection, for 
both harp and harper are the most marvellous of 
earth Yet such is the relation. 

Here fallacy of the attempt to turn the 

I great discoveries in physiological psychology 
and psycho-physics to the Bupport of materialism. 

1 Thii is the underlying thought on whirl, Professor Piske builds 

••( M.in. 



208 THE GIST OF IT. 

Suppose it to be shown that all the plrysical mani- 
festations of the spirit-activity are capable of mathe- 
matical determination and expression. What does 
this prove? Simply that, as the material universe 
is throughout conditioned by space and time, and in 
all its parts and movements constantly embodying 
mathematical relations, so the instrument, through 
which the spirit of man communicates with and 
moulds the physical universe, is perfectly fitted for 
its purpose. The discovery of the intricacy, delicacy, 
and exactness, of the operations of the bodily mechan- 
ism, enhances our conception of it as the instrument 
of the manifestation and work of the spirit; but, at 
the same time, it renders only the more necessary 
that in and back of so complicated a mechanism, 
there be an intelligent co-ordinating and controlling 
power. The more involved the machinery, the more 
needful is a mind to use it. This mechanism is under 
the control of the spirit. Obedient to its every wish, 
it perfectly expresses its designs, and reflects its 
activity. As a result of this, the body is moulded 
gradually by the spirit, so that frequently it comes 
at last, in form and action, to represent the character 
of the spirit within. 

These two facts of the relation and control are 
facts of consciousness. 

Not that every man at all times vividly realizes 
the distinct separation of his spirit and body, or his 
perfect control over the body, any more than a child 
is clearly conscious of the fact that a straight line is 
the shortest distance between two points. All are 
developed late in consciousness, though made use of 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 209 

from the start. A child running across the room to 
its mother moves, as far as it can, in a perfectly 
straight line. So when an orange is offered the 
child, it reaches out its hand to grasp it. An exami- 
nation of mature self-consciousness shows that in the 
former case the action was the result of a regulative 
principle in the mind, but not consciously recog- 
nized by the child : in the latter case the child sim- 
ply stretches out its hand, but the movement is 
consequent upon an action of the will. In careful 
inspection of self-consciousness one comes to feel, 
M This body is my body ; it is my hand, my head, my 
brain; J u*e all these things;" and thus, in the very 
form of statement, is involved the conviction of every 
one that he is separate from his body and controls it. 
Why ma}' it not be, then, that in death the spirit 
drops the body as a mechanism for which it has no 
further use, just as the butterfly casts aside the 
shrivelled form which served its uses in its existence 
a- Larva and chrysalis? 

To the same effect is the unequal development of 
spirit and body. Spirits of gigantic mould and grasp 
;ii- -hut up in small and feeble bodies. Cicero and 
Juliu r wciv both men of delicate frame, and 

1 to most sedulously guard their health. 
I; ides, the body reaches its full development, and 
then for many years slowly declines in strength. 
The spirit continues to develop throughout life; and 
frequently in extreru . when* the body is frail 

and rapidly weakening, the spirit displays most 
intense activity. 

Further than this, the spirit often accomplishes 



210 THE GIST OF IT. 

wonderful things without some of the ordinary 
bodily organs. The wonderful case of Laura Briclg- 
man needs but a mention. Some years ago two 
brothers, both blind, were living in Philadelphia. 
They kept a number of tame pigeons which they 
had named, and they could distinguish them by the 
different sounds of their movements as they flew 
above the heads of their masters. So numerous are 
such cases that we have ceased to be surprised at 
them. Yet they are of great force in determining the 
relation of the spirit to the body. It is difficult to 
imagine, if the spirit be in such connection with the 
body as to be unable to exist apart from it, how such 
phenomena can be manifested. On the contrary, all 
these particulars converge to the establishing of the 
hypothesis that the spirit is not only a distinct sub- 
stance from that of the body, but is not dependent 
upon the body for its existence. 

The nature of the spirit itself is full of suggestions, 
which add greatly to the argument. As has been 
shown, 1 the spirit is a substance just as certainly as 
matter. Now, modern science teaches that matter 
may pass through innumerable changes, but no par- 
ticle of it can be destroyed save by the Power which 
brought it into being. The atoms may be combined 
and re-combined, but no one of them is ever injured 
or destroyed. But the spirit is a unit. It is not an 
organization of various separable parts, like the body, 
but is one indivisible whole, like the atom. By 
parity of reasoning, the conclusion is scientific that 
only God can destroy the spirit ; that it exists now, 

i P. 191. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 211 

in connection with the body; but just as it survives 
unharmed all the changes, deficiencies, and mutila- 
tions, of the body now, retaining in perfection its 
personal identity, 1 so it will pass with unaffected 
integrity through the final dissolution of the physical 
organism. 

Were the spirit dependent on the body, or any 
material agency, for its activity, it would seem neces- 
sary that when the material mechanism is broken up, 
the activity of the spirit must cease. Such, however, 
as has frequently been shown, is obviously not the 
case. Consciousness testifies to the fact that the 
Creator has endowed the spirit with the power of 
originating and impelling its own actions, and this 
self-determined activity is incessant. In waking- 
hours the mind is never at rest. If no specific train 
of thought be deliberately followed out, yet a stream 
of ideas is passing through the mind, and manifold 
phases of feeling are continually awakening and 
changing. 

All evidence points to the continuance of this 
activity in sleep and unconsciousness. Sir William 
Hamilton earned on a long scries of experiments, 
instructing his servant to wake him at varying times 
in his sleep, and always found himself in the midst of 
r dream of some kind. Such cases as that cited from 
Dr. Abercrombie by Dr. Carpenter, 2 of the Scotch 
lawyer who. in his sleep, carefully wrote out an 
elaborate argument on a very perplexing case, are of 
frequent occurrei 

These] oupled with the fact that self-activity 

• P, i Kent : I 583. 



212 THE GIST OF IT. 

is an essential attribute of spirit, — that spirit cannot 
be such without this attribute, — make it morally 
certain that the activity of the spirit is never for an 
instant wholly interrupted. 

This is but the beginning of the wonderful features 
of the spirit-nature, pointing to its continued exist- 
ence. The marvellous rapidity of the spirit-action, 
— as when persons are in imminent danger of death, 
and in an instant the entire past life flashes before 
them, — and the boundless capacity of the spirit- 
powers, seem to indicate a future wherein both may 
be perfectly exercised. The body imposes constant 
limitations upon the spirit. For some hours or days, 
under a severe strain, the spirit may continue most 
tremendous activity ; but the body wears out in the 
excitement, and demands rest. The student is con- 
scious of ability to think and work far beyond what 
he actually succeeds in doing ; but his body must have 
rest and sleep, and thus he is unable to fully develop 
his powers. 

No limit can be set to the possibilities of man's 
spirit-activity. Mithriclates VI. was master of twen- 
ty-five languages, and, when ruler over twenty-two 
nations, could converse with representatives of each 
in their own tongue. Cardinal Mezzofanti spoke 
fifty-eight languages. Dr. Addison Alexander was a 
critical scholar in twenty-five or thirty, and a master 
in almost every department of study. Napoleon I. 
dictated letters on different subjects to nine secre- 
taries, keeping all at work, and gave his general verbal 
instructions for his march to Moscow, in which the 
slightest details were accurately specified. Sir Isaac 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 213 

Xewton seemed able to grasp at once all the factors 
of the most involved problems, and hold them in full 
view until the calculation was completed. 

The emotions are not satisfied with present, tangi- 
ble objects. There is in them a wealth, a fullness, 
which cannot be entirely spent in the limitations of 
human life. Sympathy and affection reach out toward 
the world, far beyond one's ability of expression. 
Love for friends continues, though they have many 
years lain in the grave. The spirit, in contemplating 
the wonders of creation, goes out in intense yearn- 
ing toward God, — the absolute and infinite in 
truth, beauty, and goodness. The moral ideal 1 
involves and demands perfection of character, and 
toward this the emotions go out powerfully. But 
all these feelings are here deprived of their proper 
object. 

Besides these, there is in all men an intense long- 
ing for a future life. This is implied in the universal 
belief of men in such a life, and is unquenchable. The 
thought of annihilation is one against which the spirit 
bitterly rebels. Sadder words arc rarely uttered than 
the following, from one who adopted the present 
materialistic hypothesis in full. 2 

"Although from henceforth the precept to 'work 
while it is day' will doubtless but gain an intensi- 
fied force from the terribly intensified meaning of 

the words that 'the nighl cometh when no man can 
work, 1 yet when al times I think-, as think at times 
1 must, of the appalling contrast between the hal- 
lowed glory of that creed which once was mine, and 
l P. 243. ■ phyticoi. Theism, p. 114. 



214 TI1E GIST OF IT. 

the lonely mystery of existence as now I find it, — 
at such times I shall ever feel it impossible to avoid 
the sharpest pang of which my nature is susceptible. 
For whether it be due to my intelligence not being 
sufficiently advanced to meet the requirements of the 
age, or whether it be due to the memory of those 
sacred associations which to me, at least, were the 
sweetest that life has given, I cannot but feel that 
for me, and for others who think as I do, there is 
a dreadful truth in those words of Hamilton, — 
Philosophy having become a meditation, not merely 
of death, but of annihilation, the precept know thyself 
has become transformed into the terrific oracle to 
CEdipus, — ' Mayest thou never know the truth of 
what thou art.' " Stronger evidence of the undy- 
ing desire for continued existence could hardly be 
asked. 

In the entire realm of Nature, there is no normal 
need of any animal for whose satisfaction provision 
is not made. " There is light for the eye ; there is air 
for the lungs ; there is food for the ever-recurring 
appetite of hunger ; there is water for the appetite of 
thirst ; there is society for the love, whether of fame 
or of fellowship ; there is a boundless field in all the 
objects of all the sciences for the exercise of curi- 
osity, — in a word, there seems not an affection of 
the living creature, which is not met by a counterpart 
and a congenial object in the surrounding creation. 
. . . Nature abounds not merely in present expedi- 
ents for an immediate use, but in providential expe- 
dients for a future one ; and, as far as we can observe, 
we have no reason to believe that, either in the first 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 215 

or second sort of expedients, there has ever aught 
been noticed which either bears on no object now, 1 
or lands in no result afterwards." 

Now. when in all Nature thus every instinctive and 
universal desire finds provision made for its full satis- 
faction, it becomes more than a presumption that for 
these desires in man, which cannot find full enjoy- 
ment here, and for this inextinguishable longing for 
continued existence, there must be the provision of 
a future life. 

The demand of conscience, requiring absolute recti- 
tude, and holding up the idea of responsibility to God, 
is a very strong argument. This takes shape in the 
universal moral expectation of mankind. All nations 
have believed that there is a government over the 
world, and that men are to be held to an exact ad- 
judication of the merits and demerits of their actions. 
This finds evidence in the natural workings of society, 
where the vicious are usually in some way punished, 
and the virtuous are by some means rewarded ; in 
the experience of everyone, that in his spirit-activity 
the violation of certain laws results in injury; and 
in the world of Nature, where the transgression of 
law inevitably brings its appropriate penalty. This 
government, although shown in many ways, is partial 
and incomplete in this life. Men of the vilest char- 

i achieve the greatest worldly successes, and go 
unpunished for their many crimes; while persons of 
tin* purest and qoblesl character suffer unjust re- 
proach and ignominy through many years. Yet no 
man can escape the conviction of duty and of ohliga- 
I ('liitlin.r-: Natural Thtology, pp. 230 233. 



216 THE GIST OF IT. 

tion to attain absolute moral perfection ; nor can he 
eradicate the belief that he, and all others of his race, 
will be required to account for their failure to meet 
these requirements, — that, sometime and somewhere, 
exact justice will be dealt out to all, the heartless 
villain properly punished, the cruelly oppressed 
cheered and compensated. It is inconceivable that 
all this should be a vain expectation. 

This hypothesis of the spirit's future life is entirely 
consistent with the natural inferences from the pro- 
cesses of education. Much is made to-day of object- 
teaching ; in both kindergartens and public schools, 
there is constant use of tangible objects in Nature 
to develop the mind of the child. Picture blocks 
and books, varied in color, and bearing vivid repre- 
sentations of animals, stimulate and train the imagi- 
nation, store the memory with images, and arouse 
the desire to learn names and letters, and so to read. 
The bright hues of many-colored beads attract the 
eye of the little one ; and it passes gradually from 
the association of numbers with their combinations, 
to the idea of numbers apart from the beads, and so 
from all objects. An apple is quartered ; and by 
actual observation the mind sees that the whole is 
the sum of all its parts, is greater than any number 
of them less than all, and that equal parts of the 
same thing are equal to each other. Thus, step by 
step, the mind is led on, always from the sensuous to 
the ideal, from the concrete to the abstract, until 
lofty and involved processes of thought are conducted 
with no trace in them of concrete ideas. All our 
abstract ideas and terms have been developed by this 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 217 

means, and in process of time the concrete, sensible, 
meaning is entirely lost. 

In the religious observances of the Jews, a very 
remarkable instance of this process is found. 1 When 
the Jews left Egypt, they went out from a degraded 
polytheism. All about them were the Canaanites 
and other tribes debased in religions so low, and in 
some respects so vile, that we can scarcely compre- 
hend them. The religion of the Jews involved the 
idea of God as a perfectly holy Being. How were 
the Jews to rise to this conception ? They had, of 
course, as all men, the germinal idea of purity; but 
how, in the corrupt surroundings, and with their own 
crude notions as an enslaved people, was this idea to 
be developed in them? By object-teaching, if at all. 
So first, a division was made of all animals into clean 
and unclean. They were required to choose the 
animals for sacrifice from the class of clean animals; 
and of these, one must be taken which was perfectly 
whole, free from spot and blemish of every kind. 
The sacrifice was to be performed by a special class 
of men, the priests, set apart specifically for this 
religious Bervice. The sacrifice, all the appliances 
used in it, and the priests, were to be carefully 
purified With clean water. Yet, when all this was 

d< ii<\ the sacrifice was not pure enough to be per- 
formed in the direct presence of God, within the 
tabernacle, but must be conducted outside, in the 
Court. By this moans was developed in their minds 
inception of absolute purity. 
In this way. the individual is continually passing 

1 Waikt -r: Philosophy of the Plan ol , chap. vil. 



218 THE GIST OF IT. 

from concrete to abstract ideas. In business and 
social intercourse, specific acts of a particular kind 
are performed ; and from their repetition, general 
principles are evolved concerning the truth or right 
involved in them. Through life the process is cumu- 
lative, the individual more and more passing from 
the tangible and material to the unseen and spir- 
itual. Does not this point clearly to another life, 
in which this material body, having performed its 
work as the mechanism through which the spirit 
operated and was educated here, shall be discarded, 
and the spirit rise, with its training and equipment, 
into a broader and fuller life ? 

No hypothesis invests human life with any com- 
mensurate dignity save this of a conscious existence 
beyond the grave. This is apparent from all the 
foregoing. If there be no future, man is more piti- 
able than the beasts of the field : for their nature is 
perfected, and all their wants supplied ; while he, 
poor wretch, only approximates, and that distantly, 
his possible completeness, and is tortured by hopes 
and fears, ambitions and discouragements, of which 
the brute knows nothing. But grant the supposition 
of a future life, in which all the myriad powers of the 
human spirit shall be perfectly developed, and every 
want, every longing, every affection, shall find entire 
and appropriate satisfaction, — and this life is at once 
elevated and made of stupendous importance. The 
future must, in some way, be related to the present, 
and so every action and experience of the present 
will have its place and value. Then the grandest 
use of the future will be conditioned on the grandest 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 219 

use of the present ; and so there is stimulus for 
effort, encouragement in difficulty, comfort in sor- 
row, hope in all times of darkness and despondency. 
Then all the seeming uselessness of man's nature is 
explained, and its destiny is shown to provide for its 
absolute completeness of being. 

God is a Being of infinite wisdom, goodness, and 
justice. Far be it from us finite creatures that we 
should assume to fully unfold the purposes of the 
Deity, or to impose on Him our human conceptions 
of right action. Yet as we trace the appearance of 
His will in human life, and try to learn therefrom 
His plans as He unfolds them, we cannot avoid the 
conclusion that it is not consistent with the wisdom 
of the infinite God that He should create this world, 
and put man at the head of it, for no other purpose 
than the development of man in his present condi- 
tion. That man is at the summit of the created 
world, and that it is all arranged for his purposes, 
is undeniable. But he mars Nature and wrecks him- 

i»v his feebleness, his ignorance, his wilful wrong. 
What then ? It is inconceivable that waste and dis- 
appointment should mark the working of the Divine 
rower. The only reasonable conclusion is, that, 
after development and training here, man is to rise 
into a grander life beyond, and thus all the outlay of 
power and adaptation of means to ends in the uni- 

e shall be found to be in the exercise of absolute 
and infinite wisdom. 

God is good. 1- a good being cruel 7 Is God a 
Being of infinite goodness if lie deliberately tortures 
and disappoints His creatures? Yet, if there be no 



220 THE GIST OF IT. 

future life, this is exactly what He has clone. Spring- 
ing from the inmost depths of his being, refusing to 
be silenced by science or cajoled by philosophy, shap- 
ing and coloring all his ideas and actions, this yearn- 
ing for a future life, and conviction that therein the 
mysteries of this life will be revealed, and its imper- 
fections removed, gives, under all conditions, hope, 
strength, and dignity, to man. Can God be good, and 
yet so fiendishly cruel as to implant in man's breast 
an ineffaceable belief in a future life, and desire for 
it, if there be no such future ? Finite love would 
recoil from such mockery. Shall we say that out of 
the limitless ocean-fulness of His infinite love, God 
would manifest such malignity? The thought is 
monstrous. 

" Yes ! hope may with my strong desire keep pace, 
And I be undeluded, unbetrayed ; 
For if of our affections none find grace 
In sight of Heaven, then, wherefore hath God made 
The world which we inhabit ? Better plea 
Love cannot have, than that in loving thee 
Glory to that eternal Peace is paid, 
Who such divinity imparts 
As hallows and makes pure all gentle hearts. 
His hope is treacherous only whose love dies 
With beauty, which is varying every hour ; 
But, in chaste hearts uninfluenced by the power 
Of outward change, there blooms a deathless flower, 
That breathes on earth the air of paradise." 1 

God is a just Being. This wonderful universe 
which He has made moves perfectly in accordance 

1 Wordsworth: Miscellaneous Sonnets; from the Italian of Michael 
Angelo. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 221 

with the laws which He has stamped upon it. All 
plant and animal life obeys the principles of action 
lie has given it, and subserves the full end of its 
creation in so doing. In human life, 

"Man's inhumanity to man 
Makes countless thousands mourn." 

If God be just, must He not take note of this fact ? 
Are we to suppose that He would create a being like 
man, and permit all his wrongs to go unrighted, all 
his crimes unpunished, forever ? In this world, how- 
ever, just retribution and reward are meagerly ac- 
corded ; and many a pure spirit goes down to death 
under the sting of shameful injury. The necessities, 
then, of God's justice require that there be a future 
life, in which the beginnings of equity here may be 
fully realized, and right be done to every one. 

It is, therefore, scientifically conclusive, that, while 
the materialistic hypothesis of the death of the spirit 
with the body is wholly unproven, the theist's hy- 
pothesis of a continued conscious existence be}'ond 
the gloom and sadness of the grave is open to no 
valid objection, and is supported by very strong and 
cumulative evidence. Under such circumstances its 
linn would be foolish and unreasonable, and we 
gladly accept it as our theory. 

A few questions concerning this future require 
answer here. What is involved in it? Can we 
know, on the theistic basis, any thing about the 

future life ? 

The f< regoing makes it evident that the future 

life must involve some kind of a judgment. The 



222 THE GIST OF IT. 

interests of this world must be adjusted ; and, as 
that is not done here, it must be attended to there. 
Where or how that judgment will be effected, is not 
the theist's question. He affirms simply that some- 
where and somehow the Moral Governor of the uni- 
verse will reckon with His human creatures, and 
adjudicate their earthly activities. 

The future life will be one of continuous develop- 
ment. A muscle grows in size and strength only by 
exercising it, and exercise causes it to develop, is 
the twofold statement of a universal law. The stu- 
dent who is lacking in strength in his arms takes 
systematic exercise to develop these muscles. With- 
out planning any thing about gain in muscular 
power, the blacksmith, day after day, swings his 
sledge-hammers in his work, and develops very pow- 
erful muscles in his arms. One man carefully and 
persistently restrains his temper until he acquires 
such power of self-control that it is scarcely possible 
to seriously disturb him. Another makes no attempt 
to get command of himself, and by and by develops 
a fury of temper which makes him dangerous to 
society, and sometimes brings him to the gibbet with 
human blood upon his hands. This law of develop- 
ment by exercise will hold in the future as now. It 
is written in the very fiber of man's being, both body 
and spirit, that he must be in action until he ceases 
to exist; and all activity results in change and 
growth. 

Plence, in the future world the man of good char- 
acter and habits, whose spirit is dominated by good 
principles and trained into good tendencies, will con- 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 223 

tinually increase in right knowledge, in trne power, 
in moral excellence. While he who in that world 
remains as he was here, a man who is ruled by evil 
principles, whose character is formed with evil habits 
and tendencies, will sink, as time goes by, lower and 
lower into wickedness, constantly grow in desire for 
evil, and power to do wrong, will add more and more 
to the shame and disgrace of his increasing pollution 
and ruin. 

How long will that future life continue? Is it 
ever to end? If so, when or how? To this question 
theism makes no such confident answer as concerning 
the fact of the future life. Two things are certain : — 

First, The power to create involves the power to 
destroy. Man can make a locomotive, and afterward 
it to pieces. God, who made both the matter in 
the locomotive and in the man, and the spirit of man 
which devised the locomotive, can, if He chooses, 
annihilate both. Their continuance in existence is 
wholly dependenl on His will. 

i, It is a necessary deduction from all the 
above, that the future life will certainly continue 
until the full perfection and purpose of the being 
of man is accomplished. How long will that be? 
.Man's Bpirit-activities are susceptible of indefinite 
msion. They never can reach the infinite, always 
will continue finite, Limited. Yet, in approximation 
t" tin* infinite, there is opportunity for endless pro- 
ion. M.iu i- made in tin- image of the [nfinite, 
and no bound «mii I- \\ lli. h 

. then, "ii t he basis of simple theism, a pre- 
sumption amounting to a moral certainty, that God 



224 THE GIST OF IT. 

will never blot oat the existence of man, but that, 
through eternally succeeding ages, he will grow and 
expand more and more, in the unfolding of his 
nature, the increase of strength and power. 

Will the body ever rise from the grave ? Before 
this question theism is silent. In all the data from 
which theism reasons, no hint is given regarding this 
transcendent inquiry. Outside of revelation God 
has not, in the matters open to the theist as such 
for investigation, given any indication of His will in 
this particular; and He alone can say. 

Our answer to the fourth question is now com- 
plete. The future lies before man, one continuous 
whole. The present life opens to him with its many 
possibilities and duties, its trials, failures, and suc- 
cesses, inviting and urging him to most resolute and 
incessant exertion in achieving true success in the 
rational perfection of his entire being. ^Across the 
course of his life falls the dark shadow of death, 
which he cannot escape, which forever ends all his 
action in this world, which will come upon him — he 
knows not when, nor where, nor how. Death, how- 
ever, is but the gateway through which man passes 
with uninjured and unchanged spirit-activities into 
another form of life, where, freed from the limitations 
of the present body, unfettered by aught save his 
own tendencies, through never-ending ages, he will 
work out his destiny, achieving rational perfection, 
and ceaselessly approaching the Infinite in true 
knowledge, power, excellence, or increasing in mean- 
ness and malignity, deceit and violence, sinking in 
debasement and wreck, forever. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 225 



CHAPTER V. 

WHAT IS MY RELATION TO MY SITUATION, MY 
ORIGIN, MY FUTURE? 

Science has sometimes been defined as the study 
of relations. A vast number of facts are gathered, 
and carefully compared and studied until their rela- 
tions are understood ; and then, on the basis of those 
relations, they are grouped into a science. Thus, 
zoology is the science expressing the relations of 
structure, function, and form, which investigation 
has showD really exist between the bodies of all 
animals. 

No fact, no being, can stand alone, but each is in 
numberless ways related to all about itself. Facts 
apparently the simplest become, by their relations, 
<>i' \' i importance. It is a slight thing, at 

first . that the home of the English people 

should br tin; little group of islands lying off the 
nuri i>! of Prance. But the limited territory 

of the islands compelled tin- inhabitants to become 
tnercial ; their location made them the point from 
which, since the fall of Constantinople and the shut- 
ting up <>f th :.\\ ,i\ 8 to the Bast, all the world 

has lx-mi mo ible : and these two facts have in 

no small measure made the English the cosmopolitan 

nation il is to-day. 



226 THE GIST OF IT. 

It is, then, the duty of the scientific seeker for 
truth, first, to gather up all the separate facts, or 
groups of facts, which have any connection with the 
subject of his study ; and, second, to learn the exact 
relations of all the facts to each other. After this is 
done, the work of interpretation of the facts — of 
learning just what they mean — is not difficult. 

In successive chapters we have gathered various 
groups of facts. Central of all is the being of man, 
— his curiously and beautifully complex nature, a 
perfectly embodied spirit. About this are the other 
facts of his location in space, in time, in the scheme 
of Nature, and in the unfolding of race-life ; of his 
origin in the creative intelligence and will of the 
infinite God, of his future in the life here, in death, 
and in a conscious existence beyond the grave. Now 
it is necessary to consider the relations of these groups 
of facts to each other, and thus complete the survey 
which prepares for the interpretation. 

I. 

Relation gives rise to obligation or duty. When a 
man is elected to office, he enters a new relation, and 
new duties devolve upon him. The relation of two 
young people in society is greatly changed when they 
marry each other, and their mutual duties are like- 
wise altered. It is evident, therefore, that one's 
duties may be classified on the ground of the distinc- 
tion of the relationships in which he is. It has been 
found that all knowledge starts from ourselves, and 
we must come back to our own self-consciousness 
for the basis of all certitude. In all duties, also, we 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 227 

radiate out from ourselves, and find in our own 
spirits that which gives force to all appeals to us on 
this basis. 

From this it is clear that, first, each one owes cer- 
tain duties toward himself. Each one is bound to 
du the best for himself; and so this marvellous union 
of spirit and body, in all its intricate combinations 
and wonderful possibilities, must be preserved, de- 
veloped, trained, controlled, and guided, in all its 
situations and activities, if the highest achievements 
are to be made. 

Yet no individual stands alone. The organization 
of human life groups men in families, in societies, in 
states and nations; while the large number of under- 
lying common elements bind the entire race into one 
whole. Out of all these associations obligations arise, 
and duties devolve upon the individual toward those 
with whom lie is thus connected. 

Lastly, man is in the realm of Nature, in manifold 
connection with all the animate and inanimate com- 
ponents of tin* mechanism of the entire universe. 
Hence will come cm-tain peculiar duties demanding 
fulfillment. 

These three spheres of duty must each be briefly 
considered. 

The first duty of man toward himself is to preserve 
his own being in its integrity. "Self-preservation is 

th»- first law of Nature/' and applies to man no less 
than to the lower creation. But, while the plant ami 

animal ai istructed that they instinctively avoid 

food and BUrrOUndiugS which Would be fatal to life, 

man is left to the use of his own reason in shunning 



228 THE GIST OF IT. 

what would be poisonous to him. The bird never 
takes strychnine by mistake : man may swallow it, 
not knowing its nature, and be killed by it. It is 
essential that one should respect his body, and defend 
it from all peril. It is the mechanism of his activity 
in the universe ; 2 and so any impairment of its per- 
fection, or destruction of its existence, lessens or ends 
his achievement in the world. 

He is under obligation, therefore, to protect him- 
self from accident ; to refrain from all intentional in- 
jury of any parts of his body, — as in the case of the 
opium-eater : and under no circumstances is he to put 
an end to his own existence. Here is the ground for 
regarding suicide, — as it may justly be termed, — self- 
murder. Among the ancient Greeks suicide was held 
to be the worst of all crimes, and was punished in a 
way which, until their religion lost its power, was 
effective in preventing it in all but rare instances. 
The body of the suicide was buried in an out-of-the- 
way spot, with none of the usual funeral-rites, and 
all traces of the grave were carefully effaced. Hence 
the spirit was left without the fees to pay its way 
over the river Styx, and was cut off from all share in 
the ancestor-worship. Thus a disgrace was fastened 
upon the family, which could in no way be concealed 
or removed. No greater crime is possible than for a 
man deliberately to end his own life, and thus desert 
his sphere of duty, and fling back, unasked, the exist- 
ence here which God has given him. The disposition 
to regard ever} r suicide as insane is proof of the pres- 
ent horror of the crime. 

1 P. 45, ct seq. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 229 

It is equally wrong to suffer any one else to deprive 
us of life. Self-defence is a necessary duty; and 
when it is found possible to protect one's self onlj- by 
taking the life of another, all laws hold such action 
justifiable. 

Yet, " preservation of the bodily life is not the su- 
preme duty. There are higher interests of the spirit, 
of society, and of the individual, the preservation of 
which may require the sacrifice of the bodily life 
of the individual. The most heroic virtue may be 
reached through such perilling of life. Prompted 
by a desire to alleviate the moral and physical degra- 
dation of the prisoners and criminals of the world, 
John Howard plunged into the unwholesomeness of 
the dungeon and the infection of the prison-house, 
and met, himself, with the death from which he sought 
to save others. Florence Nightingale nearly lost her 
own life in her devotion to the wounded and dying 
soldiers. They exhibited a moral heroism worthy of 
all admiration." 2 

Like dangers beset the spirit-life, and the same 

duty of self-preservation holds. Passion, malice, evil 

imaginations, BOrdidness, baseness, and all other forms 

of evil, deaden the spirit-activity, and unfit it for any 

grand and noble success in the world. All these are 

therefore to be constantly and earnestly watched 

ast. Here lies tin- first reason against indulgence 

in evil thoughts, or association with bad companions. 

I .• things iir" poison to the spirit, and render im- 

ible its I omplishment. Hence, as a man 

would shrink from drinking hemlock, or exposing 

1 Gregory : Cbriitbui Ethics, pp. its, itu. 



230 THE GIST OF IT. 

himself to the fury of a wild beast, so ought he to 
battle against all forms of wickedness in himself, and 
guard himself against the influence of vile men. 

Sickness and disease are all about us in the world, 
and prevent many from all effective work. These 
are to be avoided by careful observance of the laws 
of health. Food and drink in quality and quantity 
best adapted to the needs of the body, are to be regu- 
larly and properly taken. Pure air must be breathed, 
and the lungs developed to inhale as much of it as 
possible. To facilitate the throwing off of waste 
material through the millions of channels in the 
skin, the body must be kept clean. No muscle will 
acquire or retain strength without due and regular 
exercise, and this is to be sought. Activity means 
waste of the tissues of the body, and these must 
be renewed. For this purpose, rest and sleep must be 
taken. 

The young business-man, eager to advance his 
trade, and the student, ambitious for literary excel- 
lence, continue at their tasks until long past proper 
time for sleep. Both pay the penalty of ruined 
health and defeated ambitions. What gain was 
there to the man who, by allowing himself only four 
hours' sleep a night during his college course, 
attained extraordinary proficiency in many branches, 
but for four years after his graduation was unable to 
endure the slightest mental strain, and has never 
been more than a half-man in his work since ? 

The same duty holds in the spirit-life. The spirit- 
activity is governed by laws whose violation affects 
it just as the violation of the laws of physical health 



TUE FACTS OF LIFE. 231 

does the body. Worry overstrains and paralyzes 
the self-activity of the spirit, and ought to be most 
carefully avoided. There are many emergencies in 
the lives of all, when the future is so dark and per- 
plexing that it seems almost impossible to keep from 
worrying. But worry never of itself solves a prob- 
lem, or performs a duty ; and its indulgence so im- 
pairs the self-activity of the spirit, that, when the 
opportunity for action comes, the man has not vigor 
enough to do what offers for him. The history of 
the lives of great generals, like the Duke of Welling- 
ton, or successful men of business, like A. T. Stew- 
art, shows that in hours of most extreme uncertainty, 
instead of fuming and fretting themselves into a fever 
over their perplexity, they held themselves quiet and 
composed, Watching the progress of events, and, 
when the way opened, were ready with full strength 
to at once take all advantage of the situation. 

all evil habits which tend to enslave the spirit 
are to be shunned. It is a man's right and duty 
to do his own thinking, and conduct all his spirit- 
activity under no bondage, whether those fetters be 
self-imposed in the growth of evil tendencies within 
himself, or be laid upon him by some external au- 
thority, which in church, state, society, or literature, 
BSSUn right to think and decide in matters pf 

common interest. This was the spring f the great 
claim of tin- Reformation, — the right of every man to 

read and interpret the Bible for himself, in the light 

of his own intelligence and c mscienc , 

It is further evident that a man ought to preserve 
the truth of hi> pature. Too frequently it Lb said 



232 THE GIST OF IT. 

such an one is not honest with himself. This failure 
to be honest, true, in all one's spirit-activity, lies at 
the root of a vast amount of the sad wreck and gross 
wickedness in open life. The man is dimly conscious 
of a weakness in his character, or suspects that some 
habit is gaining undue control over him ; but he 
shuts his eyes to it, does not look fearlessly into the 
depths of his own nature, and demand of himself per- 
fect truth throughout every fiber of his being ; and 
so evil tendencies go unrestrained, his sense of right 
is blunted, and some morning those whose implicit 
confidence he had long enjoyed are startled and 
grieved by news of his fall, which forever brands his 
memory with the stigma of defalcation or some worse 
crime. 

The growth of prejudice is another fearful disease 
of the spirit-life, Man is a rational being : as such, 
it is his business, by means of the wonderful powers 
given him, 1 to quietly and carefully investigate and 
consider all facts that come before him, learn the 
exact truth involved in them, and determine his 
action on the basis, of the facts under the guidance 
of the principle of right. In short, a man's sole 
business in this world is to know the truth, and do the 
right. In so far as he fails of this, his achievement 
is limited, and his character marred. Hence, the 
man who makes a virtue of holding resolutely to his 
opinions because they are his opinions, regardless of 
the fact that important data have been brought out 
since he formed his conclusions; and the woman who 
is proud to be first in the fashion, and is almost out 

1 Chap, i., esp. p. 44. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 233 

of heart when by any mischance she is out of the 
latest mode, — both alike, instead of manifesting their 
freedom and independence, proclaim themselves 
the poor slaves of an unreasonable prejudice, or the 
caprice of some Paris milliner. 

Death, sickness, and disease, in all their forms, are 
thus to be watched against as foes of the life and 
health of both body and spirit. It is further neces- 
sary that provision be made for the due satisfaction 
of the many needs and cravings of the individual 
being. 1 In so far as these are not satisfied by right 
means, the efficiency of the nature is lessened ; and it 
is therefore essential that all proper efforts be made 
to lay hold of every thing in the world about us, 
which may be utilized in the full and rational 
exercise of all the powers of spirit and body. 2 

All the above duties arise from the obligation to 
preserve the life and health and completeness of 
one's nature. This is but the basis for other obliga- 
tions. Man is essentially an active, developing being. 
There is no such tiling as entire stoppage in man's 
development. If care be exercised, and all proper 
means used, the promising boy will grow into a use- 
ful, honorable man: if, while no positive measures 
an- taken t<» injure him, he is Buffered simply to 
drift with no guidance and discipline, he will degen- 
into a loafer or a criminal. It is, then, incum- 
bent «»!i every one to make all possible efforts t<» 

rightly develop and train all the powers of lii> nature. 

Prom thi- obligation there is no escape. In this 
matter opportunity is obligation; and since oppor- 

• Pp. IS- Mi - For full diBctuftion of this point, see p 24Q t etseq. 



234 THE GIST OF IT. 

tunity, though in varying phases and degrees, comes 
to every one, all are under the same binding duty. 
Many a young man, with the opportunity for busi- 
ness-training or higher education, and many a young 
woman, before whom open lines of culture, excuse 
their failure to improve these chances on the ground 
that they have no special gifts to develop. "If," 
they say, " I had genius, then it might do ; but it 
isn't worth while to spend time and money on the 
culture of such ordinary ability as mine. 1 ' 

But, in the first place, the world is not composed, 
as a whole, of geniuses. They are a minute percent- 
age of the race, and on them special duties rest. 
The obligation binding each individual is to develop 
all the powers he has, no matter how few and poor 
they may be. It is not his business to consider 
whether he is equal or inferior to others in any kind 
of ability. Let them manage their own lives. He 
must attend to himself, and develop and train what- 
ever of talent he may possess. 

Then, secondly, no man knows what he is able to 
do until he tries. Goldsmith was so dull a scholar, 
that his teachers despaired of him, and he never was 
other than a dunce in conversation. But his name 
is among the bright ones in literature. Sir Isaac 
Newton was the stupidest boy in his classes, until, at 
the age of twelve, the head boy in the class sneered 
at and kicked him for his dullness. The insult stung 
him to exertion ; and, at the age of thirty, he was 
recognized as one of the leading scientific thinkers 
of his day. 

The duty is therefore universal. Each is bound 






THE FACTS OF LIFE. 2lo 

to develop all the powers of his nature to the fullest 
extent possible, and give them the broadest and most 
thorough training which his opportunities permit. 
All this, however, must be so directed as to secure a 
rounded, symmetrical development of all the being. 
The readers of u His Majesty, Myself," will remem- 
ber that Thirlmore prepared for his final failure by 
devoting himself in college and the theological semi- 
nary to athletics, rhetoric, and orator}', and failing 
to get a masterly grasp of any of the subjects he 
studied. Every college almost has the legend of 
some brilliant mind, like young Levering of Har- 
vard, recently, who became a wonderful scholar, 
athlete, and teacher, but overstrained his body, and 
sickness suddenly attacked him, and prematurely 
ended what seemed a rarely promising development. 
Body and spirit, intellect, feelings, and will, taste 
and conscience, must each be cultured, and all in 
one harmonious evolution. 

At the basis of all lies the obligation to culture 
the body. It is self-evident, that, other things being 
equal, the man who has the strongest and best- 
trained body will accomplish the most in life. Hor- 
ace Greeley said that the secret of success in journal- 
ism lay in the ability to do twenty-four hours' work 
in eighteen. That workman who can, without risk, 

llarly devote more time, with more intense exer- 
tion, to his work than his fellows, is always in a posi- 
tion to command the Labor-market. 

Hence, it becomes a duty to carefully observe all 
means for developing the body t<> the greatest possi- 

Btrength and dexterity. Every muscle should 



236 TIIE GIST OF IT. 

be so exercised as to give it the greatest strength. 
The organs of sense should be disciplined to quick- 
ness and accuracy of operation ; and every portion 
of the entire mechanism brought into subjection to 
the will of the spirit, and made its ready and effi- 
cient instrument for work. Great success in boxing 
comes not from superior strength so much as from 
better training and command of the eye and arm. 
So a rapid type-setter, with perhaps less mere physi- 
cal strength than his associates in work, will accom- 
plish much more work than they with less fatigue to 
himself, because of more perfect control over the 
muscles of his fingers, and greater quickness of eye- 
sight. 

But this culture of the body must be determined 
in character and extent by the temperament, employ- 
ment, sex, and other characteristics, of the individual. 
If a man of highly nervous organization engages in 
violent exercise, he will probably kill himself. On 
the other hand, if the man of phlegmatic tempera- 
ment does not habituate himself to very great physi- 
cal exercise, he will become stupid and dull, and be 
incapable of any work involving even ordinary acute- 
ness and quickness of intellect. It is a great thing 
for a porter to be able to shoulder a three-hund red- 
pound trunk, and carry it to the fifth story of a 
building. But the teacher or author can accomplish 
as much, if not more, with much less physical devel- 
opment, provided his body has such health and endur- 
ance that it will support him in the strain of his 
mental activity. One needs muscle ; the other, nerve. 
In every case, the individual is bound to study him- 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 237 

self, and adopt that method of physical culture which 
will best fit his body for the specific work which he 
or she must do in life. 

The body must be carefully trained as the instru- 
ment of the spirit. How much more, then, is it a 
duty to culture the spirit itself! For this purpose 
the individual must first get a knowledge of his own 
spirit. By means of a system of psychology, 1 he can 
obtain a knowledge of the general facts and princi- 
ples of spirit-activity, which are the same in all 
men. 

But this is not sufficient. When he comes to study 
himself, he will find, that while in these main features 
he is exactly like other people, yet in many minor 
but highly important points he differs from them. 
One has a turn for science, another for mechanics, 
a third for business, a fourth for literature, and so 
on. One is quick and keen, but disposed to be 
narrow and hasty. Another is broad and compre- 
hensive, but lacking in practicality. One young 
woman is eminently endowed with teaching ability. 
Another, lacking this, is gifted with rare social 
powers and attractions, which fit her to lead and 
mould in Bociety. All such facts must be carefully 
studied out by each individual, and-given their due 
place in his system of culture. 

Willi all the facts in hand, the next step is the 
formation of a true theory of education, and its 
earnest, persistent application in actual life. Here 
a caution is necessary. .Many persons suppose that 

the best educated man is he who can show the 

1 Ch;ii) i. sec. 1. 



238 THE GIST OF IT. 

longest list of books which he has read, and whose 
memory is loaded with the greatest number and 
variety of facts. Such an opinion is a grave mis- 
take. Man's purpose in life is achievement. All 
our previous discussion has been based on this idea, 
and tended toward its establishment. It necessarily 
follows, therefore, that a man may be a walking 
library, an encyclopaedia of information, and } T et not 
be, in the true sense of the term, an educated man. 

He is truly educated, who, by his power of know- 
ing, operates freely and without bias, gathering con- 
tinually, from both the outer and the inner world, 
the largest measure of exact and truthful knowl- 
edges, working out unerringly their varied relations, 
and constructing them in perfect systems, according 
to the laws of the true, the beautiful, and the good ; 
who, by his power of emotion, responds immediately, 
and in due measure and appropriate form, to the 
knowledges thus presented, going out in affection 
and desire, most deeply and strongly, toward all 
that is seen to be pure and noble, right and lofty 
and true, and powerfully inciting the will to exer- 
tion in the accomplishment of these ends of action ; 
and who, by his power of will, freely acting under 
the guidance of reason and the standard of right, 
rationally prefers the best ends of action presented, 
and with resolute purpose, and far-reaching, all- 
comprehensive plan, bends and holds all powers of 
spirit and body, all available resources of the inner 
and the oyter world, in most decisive, persistent, 
united, tremendous, achievement: and whose body, 
developed and trained to the greatest possible 



TIIE FACTS OF LIFE. 239 

strength, endurance, and dexterity, is the ready and 
willing instrument in executing the commands of 
the ruling spirit. 1 All systems of education which 
do not bring about such results, are, in so far, 
erroneous and defective. 

To attain this end, one must carefully study the 
principles of his own being, give constant exercise 
to the various powers, and discipline them into 
proper habits of operation. The spirit as a whole, 
each power in particular, and all in their mutual rela- 
tions, are to be carefully developed. The man whose 
head is full of Greek and Sanscrit roots, but who 
has no sympathy with the world about him, is not a 
truly educated man. Conversely, he whose sympa- 
thies are warm and quick, but who has not knowl- 
edge to guide his impulses, is sadly defective in 
education. Nor is he superior to either, in this 
particular, who has both wide information and 
generous impulses, but lias never trained his will 
to decisiveness and persistency in action. 

All this process is of necessity a growth. One 
acquires power in grasping knowledge, by wisely 
and systematically exercising what power he has. 
Depth and fervency of feeling are developed, not 
by wishing for them, and berating one's self for 
coldness and apathy, but by filling the mind with 
3 and images — best it' gathered by actual con- 
with real lift — which arc fitted to rouse Buch 
emotion. Here is an all-important caution. It is a 
frequent experience to find a person whose emotions 

arc deeply stim-d by some imaginary scene of Buf- 

I P. 



240 THE GIST OF IT. 

fering, but who is wholly unmoved when in the 
presence of real affliction. The reason is, that the 
feelings always look toward action. If, then, they 
are roused, but no action of the will ensues, they 
lose their normal tone, and become blunted ; so that 
persons much addicted to the reading of sensational 
literature are usually deficient in genuine sympathy. 
The will is to be cultured by frequent and steady 
putting forth of its power. Taste becomes acute, 
correct, and catholic, by the study of masterpieces 
of beauty in Nature and in art. Conscience is made 
tender, clear, true, and firm, by study of the princi- 
ples of right, and their careful application to one's 
own life. 

In all the process one is diligently to guard against 
ignorance and stupidity, credulity and scepticism of 
the knowing-power ; insensibility, or lack of feeling, 
and passion, or ungoverned feeling, in the power of 
emotion ; cringing servility, senseless independence, 
fickleness, and obstinacy of the power of will ; in- 
ability to respond to the beautiful, or erroneous con- 
ception of its importance, in the aesthetic nature ; 
error, scrupulousness and doubt of conscience ; and 
indifference, superstition, atheism, and godlessness in 
the religious nature. 

When all the powers of the spirit are thus devel- 
oped and trained, in perfect integrity and harmony, 
the individual is ready for action. But now it be- 
comes necessary for him to keep firm command of 
himself, lest, by the improper action of any power, 
the balance and effectiveness of the whole be dis- 
turbed. Passion and appetite must be rigidly con- 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 241 

trolled, or he will be swept away by them into the 
number of those whom intemperance and licentious- 
ness have wrecked. The desires for enjoyment, for 
wealth, for power, and the affections which go out 
toward these, must be constantly checked, or reck- 
dissipation, miserly covetousness, and inordinate 
ambition, will dwarf and fatally mar the whole 
development. 

He must cultivate an evenness of temper in all 
experiences, lest he be fretted and his work im- 
paired by slight annoyances ; and a greatness of 
spirit which will make him superior to all his sur- 
roundings, so that he can meet danger and difficulty 
with courage and fearlessness, success and flattery 
with humility and indifference, disappointment and 
Borrow with hopefulness and patience ; and, through 
it all, never lose the quiet, forceful manliness and 
dignity which are the marks of a truly noble nature. 

With himself thus perfectly in hand, he must 
direct all hid powers in the actual accomplishment 
of Borne definite purpose. To be true to himself, he 
musl evidently strive for the achievement of the 
greatest possible purposes in his own life. For this 
lie lini-t have a single aim iii all his efforts. At no 
time, in tli«' history of mankind, was it more true 
than now. that concentration is the fust secret of all 
Tin' scope of human knowledge is 
and competition so keen, that one must give 

himself wholly to his work if be hopes to attain great 

results. This aim musl he a true one, in accord with 

all the laws <>f one's entire being, or it will i'ail, and 

adividual be wrecked in bis endeavor to achieve 



242 THE GIST OF IT. 

it. Napoleon I. thirsted for universal empire ; but 
the laws of human progress and the measures of his 
situation were athwart his purpose, and exile and 
a. lonely grave on rocky St. Helena completed his 
comet-like career. There is an old saying, that " the 
boy that aims at the sun, will certainly shoot above 
the fence." The truth is a profound one. Men's 
lives are shaped, their influence determined, and 
their destiny sealed, by the ideals that control them. 
Many men pass the " dead line," as it is called, while 
still in the prime of life, because they set their mark 
too low, and, having reached it, have nothing left to 
call forth further effort. It is, therefore, essential 
that one set before himself a grand ideal, toward the 
attainment of which he can bend all his energies 
throughout his entire life, and in which the perfec- 
tion of his being will be realized. 

It is not a matter of choice whether or not one will 
have an ideal. Every man has one, and upon every 
man presses especially the necessity of attaining a 
high moral ideal. This fact is a remarkable one. The 
history of the race shows men everywhere striving 
for an ideal of moral excellence, and the grandeur 
of the individual and the nation is determined by 
the loftiness of this standard. The individual must, 
therefore, seek to set before himself an ideal of per- 
fection in moral character. 

No two persons are exactly alike, and hence no 
one can choose a life-work for another. Each must 
for himself determine upon that line of employment 
in which he can best make use of all his powers for 
the best purposes. The notion that no work is 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 243 

honorable save that of the learned professions, is 
utterly false. A poor preacher or a briefless bar- 
rister is a disgrace to himself and his calling. The 
man who has a taste for farming or blacksmithing, 
and perfects himself in such lines, reflects honor on 
his nation, and performs a life-work of which he and 
his may well be proud. In the prosecution of his 
chosen work, all means must be used. The forces of 
Nature, now so largely under man's control, and such 
mighty aids in his accomplishment ; wealth, in all its 
forms, a curse in the hands of the miserly and self- 
ish, but a grand agency of advancement when held by 
the noble and public-spirited ; and time, whose cease- 
less, hurrying flight leaves the idler and dreamer no 
opportunity for the realization of their air-castles, but 
hastens the fruition of the purposes of the man of 
practical power, — all these must constantly be util- 
ize-! to the full limit of their efficiency. 

One thing remains to complete the duty of the 
individual toward himself, — he must bring the full, 
decisive, persistent power of his will to bear in actu- 
ally attaining his purposes. Here, in this final and 
,, 'mating obligation, many men fail, and never ac- 
complish any thing worthy of their powers and oppor- 
tunities. No purpose of value is carried to completion 
without long and Bometimes bitter struggle. Diffi- 

of all kinds rise before and about one. In 

self. — physical or mental weakness, ignorance, In- 
competency, insubordination, to be strengthened, 
enlightened, rendered sufficient for duty, controlled. 
In circumstances, — lack of means, inopportune | 
tion in the social scale, overwhelming competition, 



244 THE GIST OF IT. 

to be supplemented, obviated, overcome. In those 
we touch, — conflicting interests, varying spheres of 
knowledge and of power, changing phases and com- 
binations of prejudice and person alit} r , to be recon- 
ciled, adjusted, guided, and restrained. Nothing can 
surmount these and such obstacles, but an instantly- 
decisive, unflagging, unconquerable, will ; and a man 
owes it to himself to in this way give his manifold 
nature the legitimate reward of its activity. One 
who does this finds difficulty oftentimes the best 
agency for forwarding his plans. "It is wonderful 
how even the casualties of life seem to bow to a 
spirit that will not bow to them, and yield to sub- 
serve a design which they may, in their first apparent 
tendency, threaten to frustrate;" 1 and thus the 
sphere of duty toward one's self may be rounded into 
symmetrical perfection. 

Large space has been given to the discussion of 
this sphere of duty for a twofold reason : it lies 
first at each man's hand, and is of prime importance, 
for no man who fails in obligations due himself will 
be true in the highest measure in other relations; 
and its careful presentation renders possible a briefer 
survey of the duties involved in the second sphere. 

Men do not and can not stand alone. All are 
mutually dependent. The capitalist sometimes for- 
gets that he owes aught to his employees, and self- 
ishly grinds them, until strikes cut off his profits, 
and endanger his property. The foolish policy of 
the moneyed interests of this country to-day is 

1 Foster: Essay on Time. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 245 

developing a spirit in the working-classes which 
threatens at any time to wreck the entire nation. 
All the idea that one is and must be advanced only 
by the injury of another, is false and suicidal. 
In theories of political economy men now recog- 
nize the principle, that, in proper trade, both parties 
to the transaction make a profit, and one is not 
subjected to loss as the only condition of the other's 
gain ; but many miserably fail to act upon it. 

A man may separate himself from his fellows, and, 
as an Ishmaelite, deal with them only to enrich and 
advance himself, regardless of the injustice and suf- 
fering he causes them to undergo, and for a time 
deem himself wise and truly prosperous. But when 
the shadows of life fall over his pathway, and, with 
his heart yearning for sympathy and affection, he 
puts out his hand to touch a friend, and finds no one 
to respond to his appeal, no one who cares a whit for 
him apart from his wealth and influence, he is made 
bitterly aware of his dependence on his fellows whom 
he bo scorned. The revenge which society takes on 
a man who neglects his social nature and obligations 
i- terrible. If he closes his heart, and stifles his 
sympathies, all hearts are closed against him, all 
sympathy withdrawn from him; and in his selfish- 
ness he loses the only key which will open the store- 
house of other's Interest, which sometimes is shown 
to hi- so vital to all men. We arc so constituted that 
our individual perfection is impossible without regard 

fur others. 

It follows, then, that as the germ-thoughi of indi- 
vidual duty is, One La bound to do the best lor 



246 TEE GIST OF IT. 

himself; so the germ of social duty is, One is bound to 
do the best for others. He must in all ways strive 
to preserve their being as his own ; to perfect them 
as he would himself, in true culture ; and to guide 
them in the prosecution and accomplishment of great 
and noble plans. 

Thus, in his general relations with men, he is bound 
to do all in his power to preserve their lives, defend- 
ing them against assault, warning them of danger, 
and avoiding any action which would threaten or 
destroy their bodily existence. He must seek to 
preserve the vigorous life of men, neither himself 
placing in their way any causes of injury or disease, 
nor suffering them to remain in such circumstances 
if he can prevent it. The wealthy manufacturer who 
permits his employees to be cooped in small, crowded, 
unhealthful homes, is guilty of positive wickedness ; 
and every cent of his profits which is made by cut- 
ting their wages below fair compensation, or failing 
to provide comfortably for them, is stolen money. 

One must, by all right means, seek to preserve the 
liberty of his fellow-men. The criminal and the in- 
sane may be confined, as the assailant and the delib- 
erate murderer may be deprived of life. But all 
slavery of the person of another, and all fettering of 
another's spirit-activity by restraint upon his thought 
and volition, are to be watched against and prevented. 
The teacher who cowes his pupils by brutal tyranny, 
the demagogue who pla} T s upon the passions of the 
people, and the church which restricts his free think- 
ing, all violate this duty. 

Pr. perty is one of the great aids to the individual, 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 247 

and is each man's own. The right to hold it origi- 
nates hi production. That which a man has made, 
by the exercise of his own power, is exclusively his ; 
and so that which lie acquires by gift or fair exchange 
belongs only to him, and he may use or dispose of it 
as he chooses. This right is to be carefully regarded 
by others. All cheating and monopolies, all robbery 
and communism, are violations of this duty. To 
make a man pay two prices for an article, is robbery; 
and the man who thus obtains money unjustly, even 
though he be a member of a great monopoly, is a 
thief. The communistic spirit which would take 
from men their rightful property, and share it among 
all, is equally wrong. It would rob those who have 
legitimately acquired wealth, only temporarily equal- 
ize its distribution, and destroy the impetus to the 
outlay of productive energy. 

An individual life is often wrecked by lack of truth 
in the man's own being, so society is shattered if 
truthfulness be not carefully observed among men. 
Afl one would wish to guard well his own good name, 
so musl lie- protect the reputation of others, abstain- 
sip, slander, and innuendo, and defending 
them against false charges. In all intercourse he is 
required to be strictly truthful, never indulging in 
exaggeration or partial statement, but always stating 
the matter just a- it is. Equivocation and decep- 
tion, in all their manifold forms, are always to 1> i 
avoided, if one i> to be faithful to his obligations. 
In promises and contracts, one musl be honest in 
forming, and diligent iu fulfilling, them. 

The sympathies must be cultivated, and court 



248 THE GIST OF IT. 

generosity, compassion, and charity, given full exer- 
cise. As one would feel that those who had wronged 
him should repair that wrong, so ought he to make 
reparation for injury which he has done any ; and he 
should be ready to forgive all injury, and be grateful 
for all favors, just as he expects those whom he has 
benefited to be grateful to him therefor, and desires 
the forgiveness of those whom he has wronged. He 
is bound to make all efforts to improve their condition 
by right education and practical aid ; and to arouse 
them to the conception of lofty, pure, and generous 
purposes, and lead them in their accomplishment. 

In the more specific relations of life, the same prin- 
ciple applies. In the home, the husband and wife 
are bound by every tie to mutual fidelity, affection, 
and co-operation. The rule of selfishness in this 
relation brings forth its proper fruit in the divorce 
courts every day. Affection, training, and authority 
are properly exercised by parents toward their chil- 
dren, who, in turn, are bound to render affection, 
docility, and obedience. From their masters, ser- 
vants may rightly demand fair wages, promptly and 
fully paid, and wise and kindly control ; and are en- 
titled to the helpfulness of a noble influence: to their 
masters they must render faithful service and cheer- 
ful obedience, showing themselves true and noble 
even when not under direct supervision. 

In citizenship, the individual, being protected in 
the free exercise of his functions, is under every 
obligation to respect and honor the government 
under which he lives, denying himself for its sake, 
supporting and defending it in peril, and rendering 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 249 

entire and hearty obedience to its just laws. If he 
be called to take part in the government, as legisla- 
tor, judge, or executive, he is bound to inform him- 
self fully of the nature and duties of his office, and 
so exercise its functions as to preserve the integrity 
of the State, advance the welfare of the citizens, con- 
serve proper relations with all other governments. 

Thus, the entire sphere of social duties is but the 
extension of the obligations due from the individual 
toward himself. Every specific duty which his own 
nature lays upon him, is equally pertinent in his in- 
tercourse with others. When, in the exercise of the 
broad catholicity which marks a rightly developed 
nature, he comes to love others as he does himself, 
and to do to them as he would wish that they should 
do to him, he acquires fully the true spirit of gen- 
erous humanity, and his performance of duty is in 
these two spheres complete. 

The question of man's true relation to Nature is 
one of the greatest problems of this age, as of so 
many in the past; and its right solution is vitally 
connected with all noble and successful life. It has 
been well said that "this age tends to the deification 
of matter." 1 The great influx of population since 
the civil war, the opportunities for speculation and 
rapid accumulation of fortunes during and since that 
period, generated in the nation a feverish thirst, a 
mad rush, for wealth, whose sweeping force lias been 
of incalculable injur} to the Bolid prosperity of the 
land, and has hardly yet spent itself. The immense 
1 Donnelly: Ragnarok. 



250 TIIE GIST OF IT. 

advances of physical science in the last generation 
have brought the material, the tangible, so vividly be- 
fore men's minds, that all thought of any thing save 
the purely sensuous has been largely crowded out. 

The animal in man, the disposition to grasp and 
hold the things of sense for merely selfish and low 
ends, needs repression rather than culture. Effort 
is constantly necessary to curb the baser elements of 
man's being, and develop the qualities which are 
essential to even a moderate degree of manliness 
and social usefulness. Nor does this statement in- 
volve any morbidly pessimistic reflection on mankind 
as a whole, or in any of its specific components. It 
is a fact, though a sad and mortifying one, that every 
individual is disposed, unless made over by some 
right culture, to pervert the animal tendencies of 
his being, whose function is the upbuilding and per- 
fection in rational exercise of the physical organiza- 
tion which forms the base of his operations and 
instrument of his influence in the world, and make 
their gratification the ultimate purpose of his life. 
This selfish animalism shapes and colors the popu- 
lar conception of man's relation to Nature, and is 
itself, in turn, fostered by the outworking of that 
conception. 

Note, in proof of this, a case, which can be para- 
lelled in almost any part of the country, of a man 
who has made wealth the sole object of his life. 
Every particle of energy, every moment of time, 
has been concentrated on the one dominant pur- 
pose, and success has been achieved. The man is 
rich in houses and lands, in stocks and bonds: in all 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 251 

ways of material prosperity he has all that heart 
could wish. But he has been too busy to regard 
any tiling save the accumulation of mere wealth. 
Intellectual culture, development of heart and con- 
science by careful study and exercise, have been out 
of the question. The newspaper has been his only 
library, and in that scarce any thing save the market 
reports and elections have interested him. The 
thirst for money has blunted his moral perceptions, 
and stifled his sympathies, so that unwittingly he 
wounds and crushes the sensitive and unfortunate 
by his treatment of them. Even his own family 
have been shut out from him in his busy life: his 
wife has learned to do without the affection and 
sympathy of early days, and his children have been 
delivered over to hired governesses and tutors to get 
their life-training. In the satiety of success, when 
the Life-ambition is fully realized, and the man turns 
to seek tliu rest and enjoyment in which he had 
hoped to spend his closing days, — how pitiable his 
disappointment! His mind lias been trained to one 
round of ideas and processes, and cannot rest away 
from them. He is ignorant of the current of thought 
outside his own work, and lias lost all ability to 
(•lit-T into sympathy with others. The realm of 
mental and ethical culture is to him an unknown 
world. There Is left for him only to seek to drown 
his disappointment in the continuance of his tread- 
mill-routine until he grinds his life away. 

I' clear that any conception of man's relation 

to the material things of this life, which results in 
such wreck of all the nobler elements of character, 



252 THE GIST OF IT. 

must be seriously defective. The " bread and butter 
question " is confessedly one of most vital impor- 
tance. The union of soul and body must be pre- 
served, and the body kept in condition for effective 
work ; and to do this, food, clothing, and shelter are 
necessary. Yet even the poor, in multitudes of 
cases, would be in better circumstances, with less 
grinding work, were it not for their vices and shift- 
lessness; while no one will claim that the whirl of 
business and fashion, in higher circles, is needful for 
the mere making of the physical organism a more 
serviceable instrument in the work of the spirit. 
How much better work will the young lawyer per- 
form by having his office carpeted with Brussels, 
and fitted up with richly upholstered furniture ; by 
spending a hundred dollars for a new suit of clothes 
every two months, and devoting a large part of his 
time to pleasure, riding, and travelling? How much 
better fitted for the duties of the home, and for 
social influence, is the young woman by having half 
a dozen trunks full of costly, elaborate dresses, and 
other of the mysterious paraphernalia of a woman's 
wardrobe ? 

Watch two women at a social gathering. One is 
clad in the softest and whitest of linen, the richest 
of silks and velvets, and adorned with all the ele- 
gance of gold and jewelry. The other is neatly and 
tastefully attired, but with half the display, and a 
fourth of the cost. The former must rely on her 
wealth and finery supplementing studied social 
graces for her recognition and influence. The 
other, while taking pains to be properly graceful 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 253 

and attractive in appearance and manner, has 
striven to secure mental culture by careful reading 
and study, and has developed warm sympathies and 
self-sacrificing interest in others. Which is the 
better prepared for the work of life ? Yet the great 
world, while it loves most the latter, bows in worship 
at the feet of the former, — Mrs. Half-a-Million. 

Nature is " the mechanism provided by God for 
the activity of intelligences." It is, therefore, man's 
servant, the material and tools of his work. What 
would we say of a man who kept a locomotive care- 
fully sheltered in his yard, and spent his time 
burnishing and adorning it? Let him perfect the 
locomotive, and then put it to work speeding over 
the rails, and increasing man's efficiency, and he is 
termed a wise man, a public benefactor. How dif- 
ferent from this is the man who seeks command of 
Nature's forces, only that he may minister to the 
comfort and ease of his physical make-up? Proper 
understanding of Nature renders possible due pro- 
vision for the well-being and operation of the body, 
and enlarges the sphere of its agency. The body is 
the instrument of thought. Nature is a large part 
of the material of thought, and is the means for ex- 
tending the reach and influence of thought. Through 
the telephone the voice is carried a thousand miles, 
and the thought flashes through the telegraph around 
the world. 1 'Hie painter's brush and canvas, the 
BCulptor's tools and marble, embodied for the delight 

and elevation of all succeeding generations Michael 
Angelo's Bublime conceptions of the beautiful. 



254 THE GIST OF IT. 

Through the telegraph and printing-press the states- 
man addresses in one day fifty millions of people. 

There is, then, good reason for the careful study 
of Nature. Large place should be given, in college 
curriculums, to the natural sciences, and abundant 
time and means should be employed in pushing all 
scientific investigation. Every discovery in so far 
betters man's condition, and increases his possible 
power. 

This study, however, must be for the purpose of 
getting control over Nature. The florist investigates 
fully the nature and habits of plants, in order that he 
may better care for them, and develop them to greater 
perfection. Knowledge alone is of little value. The 
business of this world is work, — achievement. 
Hence the man who devotes himself to the mere 
accumulation of facts and ideas, which, when accu- 
mulated, will not in any wise extend the sway of 
mankind over Nature, is wasting his time. 

It is not meant by this to affirm that all Nature 
must be made to serve a purpose of narrow and sor- 
did utility, — that any study of Nature which does 
not increase man's ability to make money is to be 
discountenanced. Such a conclusion is at variance 
with the spirit of this entire discussion, wherein it 
has everywhere been urged that so low a basis leaves 
out all the nobler elements of the character and life. 
Does man's control over Nature accomplish nothing 
but the fruition of such purposes? What shall be 
said of the use of musical instruments? A violin is 
a machine constructed by man, — an instance of 
man's control over Nature. Men have come to un- 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 255 

derstand that certain natural materials, of a specific 
size, weight, and form, put together in a definite way, 
and operated upon in a special manner by another 
particular combination of natural materials, w T ill pro- 
duce a precise kind and range of harmonious sounds. 
So this compound machine is constructed, and called 
the violin and bow. When played upon by a master, 
people listen to its strains, and are delighted, en- 
chanted, with its varied melody. They are bene- 
fited by it, but in what exact way? Are they health- 
ier because of it? Does the music increase their 
muscular power? Will they consume less food, or 
drive sharper bargains next day, as the effect of the 
music? No: but the spirit-life is elevated, purified, 
ennobled, under the harmonious influence; sympathy 
is quickened, and the deepest emotions are called into 
action. Ah! is not this a purpose whose realization 
i- worthy of effort? Is not the study of Nature of 
value when, by control of it, such results may be 
achieved? Docs not this make it evident that all 
right study of Nature will have for its ultimate pur- 
pose an extension of man's dominion over it, — an 
increase of his ability to make it minister to all the 
needs and aims of his spirit? 

Tin- inference that all study of Nature must have 
in view an immediate control and use of it, does not 
necessarily flow from this conclusion. Many facts 
are at times learned about Nature whose purpose is 
nut understood until Long afterward. Many of the 
most important discoveries have been made while 
experiments ol no immediate value were being per- 
formed. r>ni ii must be assumed, in all such study, 



256 THE GIST OF IT. 

that every fact in Nature has some meaning and 
value, and that, in the final outcome, the investi- 
gation will contribute to the further subjection of 
Nature to man. 

Hence is clear, also, the proper co-ordination of 
uses in the management of Nature. The body being 
the mechanism of the spirit, every thing which in- 
creases the health, strength, and effectiveness of the 
body adds to the efficient manifestation of the spirit, 
and is to be encouraged; while all cultivation of 
the body regardless or opposed to the use of it by 
the spirit is to be most carefully avoided. Then, it 
follows that all improvements of food, clothing, shel- 
ter, surroundings, which will enhance the value and 
power of the body as the instrument of intelligence, 
are to be diligently sought. It also and equally fol- 
lows that all ministering to the body by the forces 
of Nature which interferes with or impairs the spirit's 
management of the body, is to be with equal diligence 
avoided. Thus, effort to provide the workman with 
better diet and a pleasanter home is, in the full sense, 
obligatory and praiseworthy; but the attempt to 
secure elaborate clothing and furnishings, and the 
indulgence in rich diet, — which subserve no pur- 
pose in the spirit-life, but rather unfit the body for 
the spirit's use, — are wrong, and to be shunned. 
Throughout, absolute command over Nature is to 
be sought, and lower subordinated to higher pur- 
poses in the use of it, until it all culminates in ad- 
vancing the attainment of the supreme end of man's 
entire activity. 

Certain other specific duties follow from this rela- 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 257 

tion. Nature is for use, but not for abuse. The 
overloading and overdriving of beasts of burden, the 
wanton torture and killing of game, and other forms 
of positive misuse of the animate creation, are to be 
watched against as violations of obligation. The 
unnecessary destruction of trees, the laying waste of 
forest and arable lands by fire, the uncalled-for de- 
facing of landscapes, are all gross infringements of 
the rights of this sphere of duty. 

Man is, further, under obligation to seek to perfect 
and develop to greater effectiveness the powers and 
materials of Nature. If, by a specific form of ma- 
chinery, the same amount of force can be made to 
accomplish much greater results than before, it is a 
matter of duty to construct that machinery. The 
increased use of steam, in its application to more 
numerous departments of activit}', is in the fulfill- 
ment of this obligation. The forces of Nature are 
blind forces, incapable, of themselves, of the combi- 
nations and mutual adjustments through which their 
varied efficiency is exercised. In all the ordinary 
operations of Nature, these forces are under the con- 
trol oi* the immanent God. 1 Beyond this sphere of 
working, the agency of man is left to direct in the 
additional use and combination of the forces. Thus, 
the gold and the diamond are produced in t ho earth 
without man's assistance in any way ; but the beauti- 
ful ring on which the brilliantly cut gem flashes 
resplendent, is the result of the carefully guided 
effort of man. Latent possibilities of strength, speed, 
endurance, and varied action, ill the horse, are dcvel- 
1 Pp. 134, 135. 



258 THE GIST OF IT. 

oped only by man's control and direction. Every- 
where Nature is plastic under the moulding hand of 
man, and thence flows man's responsibility to fash- 
ion and unfold its powers into progressively greater 
perfection. 

It is obvious that this duty to perfect Nature may 
be for the purpose of beautifying it. The careful 
arrangement and pruning of trees and shrubbery in 
a landscape, which so rests and delights the spirit 
of man as he views it, realize the possibilities of 
beauty latent in the contour of the land-surface and 
the vegetation. It becomes a duty, though, of course, 
one of lesser importance, to seek in all such ways 
to bring out the capabilities of Nature for revealing 
the beautiful, to follow out the hints and attempts 
of the diverse forms in Nature to embody an idea of 
completeness, and aid in that development. 

Man's duty in his relation to Nature is completed 
when, in addition to the fulfillment of all the above- 
mentioned obligations, he protects and cares for the 
animate creation in so far as it is under his control. 
The man who owns horses and cattle is in duty 
bound to protect them from exposure and injury, 
and to give them proper food and rest. They minis- 
ter to, his comfort and happiness, and enlarge his 
sphere of activity ; they are in his power, and depend- 
ent upon him for the satisfaction of their natural 
desires: just compensation and compassion both 
require that these dumb, helpless, valuable servants 
be watched over and provided for in all the ways 
which are needful for their health and safety. The 
reflex influence on a man's own character of his 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 259 

treatment of animals is a matter of very great im- 
portance. Cruelty to them is very soon followed by 
meanness toward one's fellow-men. Kindness and 
gentleness in the control of them develop a like 
spirit in the vastly more important sphere of conduct 
toward human beings. England's philosophic genius 
struck a profound truth when, in his weird "Rime 
of the Ancient Mariner," he shows the spell of the 
curse broken by the natural outburst of appreciative 
tenderness toward the inferior animals. 



" Beyond the shadow of the ship, 
I watched the water-snakes : 

They moved in tracks of shining white; 

And when they reared, the elfish light 
Fell off in hoary flakes. 

Within the shadow of the ship, 

I watched their rich attire : 
Blue, glossy green, and velvet black; 
They coiled and swam ; and every track 

"Was a flash of golden fire. 

O happy living things ! no tongue 
Their beauty might declare : 

A spring of love gushed from my heart, 
And I blessed them unaware ! 

Sue my kind saint took pity on me, 
And 1 blessed them unaware. 

The Belf-same moment I could pray; 

And from my ueck bo free, 
The ali>. it rose fell off, and -auk 

Like lead into the 



260 THE GIST OF IT. 

Man's duty of kindness and protection toward the 
animals is thus expressed in Cowper's well-known 
lines : — 

" I would not enter on my list of friends 
(Though graced with polished manners and fine sense, 
Yet wanting sensibility) the man 
Who needlessly set foot upon a worm. 
An inadvertent step may crush the snail 
That crawls at evening in the public path; 
But he that has humanity, forewarned, 
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live." 

In the closing stanzas of the strange poem above 
quoted, the close connection of this with all other 
duties, and yet its due subordination, find beautiful 
utterance when the Mariner says, — 

" Farewell, farewell ! but this I tell 
To thee, thou Wedding Guest 1 
He prayeth well who loveth well 
Both man, and bird, and beast. 

He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small; 

For the dear God, who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all." 



II. 

Man's origin is in God, — one, self-existent, eter- 
nal, infinite, Personality, Creator and Upholder of 
all dependent beings. It is evident, then, that God 
has a property-right in man. The conviction that 
every man is the owner, and has, therefore, a right 
to the exclusive possession, use, and disposal, of that 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 261 

which, in the exercise of his personal power, he pro- 
duces, lies at the root of all those ideas of property 
which are essential to the continuance of society. 
This right also extends to the products of the powers 
of others, when he receives them in fair exchange or 
as gifts. In a much higher and more absolute sense, 
it follows from this that God, the Creator, is the 
Owner, and has a right to the exclusive possession, 
use, and disposal, of His creature, man. We can 
produce any thing only by contrivances among the 
materials furnished us. God is the absolute Creator 
of both our material and ourselves. Hence, His right 
over man is without any limitations or restrictions 
whatever, and no exceptions can be taken to any 
course He may pursue with man. This does not 
imply that He will exercise this right to man's 
injury; for He is a Being of infinite wisdom and 
love, and it is inconceivable that He should ever be 
foolish or unkind. 

An owner is always disposed to protect his prop- 
erty from injury, and perfect it as far as possible. 
By purity of reasoning, it is beyond doubt that God, 
the infinite Owner, will protect from harm, and seek 
to perfect, all tin.' universe of matter and mind which 
He has made. This relation between God and man 
is not that between the inventor and his machine ; 
bul rather that between the father and his child, with 
the farther fad that the All-Father is dependent on 
no one for His existence, but is Himself the Fount of 

all life, and ln-ncc is not the occasion, but the abso- 
lute Cause, "I" the life of the child. T<> suppose, then, 
that God will ever do or sutler evil to any of His ehil- 



262 THE GIST OF IT. 

dren, is grossly irrational. The human father, with 
limited authority and scanty means, strives, so long 
as his children submit to his guidance and control, 
to preserve them from harm, and to perfect them in 
all right culture. Shall we not say, therefore, that 
our Father, God, with all authority and with infinite 
power, will ever guard His obedient children, and 
move toward their attainment of rational perfection ? 
This is not inconsistent with the spontaneity and 
freedom of man's activity. Both facts are true, and 
are reconciled by remembering that God is infinite, 
and so can create beings who, within a certain sphere, 
shall be self-determined in their activity, and yet 
can continue His right of ownership and protection 
over them. 

The father is the law-giver to his child. By nat- 
ural necessity he must exercise authority over his 
children, guiding their actions, and prescribing rules 
for them in all their movements while they are under 
his dominion. Nor is it to be thought a hard thing 
that the father should take advantage of this right 
to impose exact laws and restrain action when he 
sees it best for his children so to do. The trouble in 
the human relation is, that fathers are more or less 
defective in knowledge, judgment, sympathy, ability, 
or, in many cases, moral principle. Hence, they fail 
to enter into the spirit of their children, or do not 
fully comprehend their intentions or the bearing of 
their proposed actions, or are unable to do for them 
that which they desire, or even selfishly and meanly 
push their own aims and prejudices to the injury of 
the children. None of these difficulties appear in 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 263 

the higher relation. The divine Father has perfect 
knowledge of all the conditions and possibilities of 
human activity. His judgment as to what is best is 
always perfectly true and right. Infinite in power, 
what emergencies can outstrip the limit of His 
efficiency? Everywhere present, what danger or 
difficulty can escape His control ? Absolute in right- 
eousness, how is it possible for Him ever to have the 
slightest trace of selfish or mean purpose toward any 
of His children ? The Fount of all love, the infinite 
Heart of the universe, no troubled, suffering child of 
man, no one in the fulness of rejoicing, need fear to 
find Him unable to thoroughly appreciate and enter 
into their deepest and strongest emotions. That, 
therefore, God should give laws to all His wonderful 
creation, and direct even the spirit of man in its 
activity, is the eminently reasonable thing. That 
lie has done so, is apparent from all our previous 
discussion, where, in inorganic Nature, in the sphere 
of life, and in the world of mind, we found specific 
conditions imposed for all forms of activhVv, and an 
all-pervasive .Power upholding and controlling all. 

The child is responsible to the father for his actions, 
and on occasion the father must call him to account 
for what lie has done. In this is no element of neces- 
sary terror to the child. A dutiful son is glad to 
report to his father his conduct and achievements, 
and a wise and loving father is tenderly sympathetic 
and encouraging in his counsel and corrections. A 
Wicked, rebellions child fears the face of his father, 
hates his reproof and advice, strives to free himself 
from his natural authority. In such cases the father 



264 THE GIST OF IT. 

is not blamed for using decided and even severe meas- 
ures in dealing with his children. On the contrary, 
should he, as so many in our land, fail to discipline 
his children, and suffer them to go unchecked and 
unpunished in their courses of wickedness, he is by 
common consent adjudged recreant to his obligations, 
not merely to his children, but to the state as well. 
In precisely the same way we are responsible to our 
great Father, God. In creating man such as he is, 
He has voluntarily assumed these obligations, and 
must, therefore, unless He violate His own nature, in 
justice both to each one of His children and to all 
His creatures, hold man to a strict accountability for 
his actions. Just as the human father must exercise 
this right and duty in full view of all the circum- 
stances and contingencies of the case, in order that 
his judgment may be in perfect equity and for the 
true welfare of all concerned, so God must and will 
exercise His government over man in perfect fairness 
to all, and with just reference to all the interests of 
the one directly involved. But men's lives are not 
completed in this world. They pass out, with the 
character acquired here, into another form of exist- 
ence, where their activity and development will be 
continuous throughout successive ages. Hence the 
government of God, the holding to account of all 
His creatures, must be with reference to all their 
future, as well as present, interests. These are not 
made fully apparent here ; and, besides, the comple- 
tion of the influence of some actions is impossible 
until after the individual has left this world. It fol- 
lows, then, that in the future, in such manner, place, 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 205 

and time as He, in His infinite wisdom, may see best, 
God will reckon with His children, and adjudicate in 
perfect equity all their activities. 

The child is dependent upon the parent for instruc- 
tion and helpfulness. The little, helpless babe must 
be cared for, and, as it grows in strength and intelli- 
gence, must be taught the right exercise of its func- 
tions, the true meaning of the various relationships 
in which it is placed, and the proper use of the agen- 
cies of all kinds put within its grasp. It will not do 
for the parent to tell the child every thing. One 
necessary element of education is the development 
and training of all the powers of the being; and if no 
room be left for the play of thought and effort in 
studying out and mastering questions, this purpose 
is entirely defeated. Much must, therefore, be left 
to the labor and research of the child, that thereby 
lie may gain perfect discipline of all his varied nature. 
But every thing essential to the safety, harmony, and 
development of his being must be told him, lest in 
his ignorance he permanently injure himself, and im- 
pair all his after-growth. It is evident, now, that it 
was in perfect accordance with our nature that God, 
our divine Father, did not give us all knowledge at 
the start, but has left the race to perfect itself in the 
study of the vast sphere of truth about it, stimulated 
both by necessity of circumstances and by the innate 
desire for knowledge and its natural product, power. 
Bui it is also evident, that in regard to all matters 
which man needs to understand in order that he may 
safely and rightly exercise his functions, and wherein 

he cannot, by the US€ of hi> natural powers, acquire 



266 THE GIST OF IT. 

such knowledge in time for his necessities, God will 
give him information. 

Under normal conditions the rational perfection of 
the child is attained by its being in perfect harmony 
with its parents. Any influence which separates them 
to any extent in sympathy and purpose, in so far 
mars the happiness and injures the development and 
efficiency of the child. By as much as God is greater 
than man, by as much as the relation of man to God 
is more important and vital than to his earthly par- 
ents, by so much is it more important for his happi- 
ness and perfection that he keep in sympathy and 
harmony with God. It cannot but be that any thing 
which separates us finite children from the full sym- 
pathy and helpfulness of our infinite Father, is most 
lamentable and dangerous. The rational complete- 
ness of life necessitates the preservation of perfect 
accord between man and God, and any impairment 
of that harmony must inevitably tend to the seri- 
ous hinderance and vital injury of all man's truest 
interests. 

From all the foregoing it is evident that the duties 
arising from this relation take precedence of all others. 
Man's connection with God, and dependence upon 
Him, being so immeasurably more important than 
any other relationships, it must be that the duties 
toward God are paramount to all others. This does 
not mean that the true performance of duty toward 
God forbids or prevents the right fulfillment of obli- 
gations in other spheres. God is the Creator not onl^v 
of man, but also of the universe in which man is 
placed. Pie has organized the universe, man in- 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 2:37 

eluded, into an accordant thought-system, and estab- 
lished all the relations out of which man's obligations 
arise. To say, then, that in a rightly ordered life, 
there could ever be any conflict between the duties 
man owes to God, and those he owes in other spheres, 
is to charge imperfection and friction upon the crea- 
tion ; and this, as has been shown, would be extremely 
irrational. The conclusion is indubitable, that, if 
man's activities be properly conducted, there will be 
perfect harmony between all the spheres of obligation 
in which he is ; ancj at no time will the performance 
of an evident duty in one necessitate the neglect of 
a real duty in any other. 

Another conclusion of great importance results from 
these facts. If God has established all the conditions 
and relations of man's activity, it is clear that all the 
obligations arising therefrom rest back for their au- 
thority on God, and so all duty is in the fullest sense 
owed and performed to God. While, therefore, there 
is a special sphere of duties of which God is the direct 
object, yet, in addition to this, the right fulfillment of 
true obligation in any and all other relations not only 
may, but must, be considered an essential part of one 
complete whole of duty, all of which is established by 
God, and due ultimately to Him. 

As the germ-thought of individual and social duties 
Is, One is bound to do the best for himself and for 
others; ' so the germ-thought of duties toward God is, 

One is bound to do the best for God. 2 Man's relatiou 

i Pp. 227, M6 

- A careful distinction musl here be made, In Individual and 
social duties tin- statement, One is bound to do thu beel for biuieulf 



268 THE GIST OF IT. 

to God is the most intimate and vital conceivable. 
Made in the image of the Infinite, he draws from Him 
all his life and energy. His threefold spirit-activity 
is the likeness of the divine Spirit, and is the means 
whereby he comes into conscious relation with that 
Spirit. " God, the moral Governor, is the infinite in- 
tellect, heart, and will, and reveals Himself to man, 
the finite intellect, heart, and will, as the infinite 
thought, love, and power. It is the likeness of man 
to God that enables him to come into conscious moral 
relation to God. He has a nature in some degree 
responsive to the manifestations of the divine Being. 
He can read something of the thought of God, can 
feel something of the goodness of God, and can recog- 
nize, and in some measure respond to, the will of God 
as power and as law, and as an expression of justice.*' 1 
As the natural outcome of all the above discussion, 
it results that man is bound to render to God the 
supreme devotion of his entire being. The body is 
merely the mechanism of the spirit. The spirit is 
threefold in its activity. Hence this duty of supreme 
devotion to God will take three forms, according as it 
is the devotion of the intellect, the heart, or the will. 
We have found 2 that in man's spirit-activity the 
knowing-power is always the first in order of exercise. 



and for others, means, that one is bound to do what will be for the 
best interest, the truest advantage, of himself and of others. It is 
impossible that man's actions should ever be for the advantage or 
profit of the creative God. Hence, in duties toward God the state- 
ment, One is bound to do the best for God, lmist be taken as mean- 
ing that one is bound to do the best to realize the end purposed by 
God in his being. 

i Christian Ethics, p. 313. 2 P. 9. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 269 

No emotion can be aroused save by the presentation 
of some knowledge, and the action of the will always 
follows that of the emotions. We learned, 1 also, that 
the right culture of this power of knowing is the first 
and necessary step in all true education. Now, the 
grandeur, elevation, and efficiency of a man's charac- 
ter depend not alone on the scope of his knowledge, 
but as well on the depth and majesty of his ideas. 
Desires for the noblest form of manhood can only 
be aroused by the clear apprehension of a lofty ideal. 
It is evident, however, that the highest of all knowl- 
edge must be the knowledge of God. The Creator 
and Upholder of the universe, lie immeasurably 
transcends it all in the fullness and variety of His 
efficiency. To the attraction of infinite power He 
adds the charm of an infinite personality, of absolute 
perfection, thus becoming the loftiest, purest, most 
fascinating object of study that can be conceived. 
True manhood must therefore draw its ideals and 
inspirations from the study of the character of God. 
But it is claimed that man cannot know God; that 
it is impossible that the Infinite should ever be com- 
prehended by the finite. This is another of the mod- 
ern sophistries. It is certainly true that the finite 
never can thoroughly comprehend — i.e., knoiv all 
about — the Infinite. God will always be above and 
beyond the farthest reach of developing, finite man. 
The assertion, however, thai because man can never 
perfectly understand God, therefore he can have no 
knowledge of Him, and should not attempt to study 
Him, is shown to be grossly erroneous by the coin- 
1 i\ -.is. 



270 THE GIST OF IT. 

monest facts of life. Who understands completely 
the chemical make-up of our daily food, and the pro- 
cess by which it is assimilated in the body ? Who 
knows the exact nature of the atom about which sci- 
entists reason so confidently, and which is essential 
to all their theories? Who knows what light and 
heat and gravitation are? What merchant under- 
stands the exact working of every factor involved in 
his business, and can calculate perfectly the effect of 
any change in the operation of the slightest forces 
of trade ? Shall we, then, throw science to the winds, 
shut up our shops and manufactories, abstain from 
food, and doom ourselves to quick death by starvation? 

To this it is replied, that, while we know nothing 
of the exact nature of all these forces and elements, 
yet we do know a great deal, and are constantly learn- 
ing more, about them. We may never know what 
matter is, but our knowledge of its operations is con- 
stant^ increasing, and that knowledge will be un- 
changed by any discovery of the essential nature of 
matter. The facts of extension, weight, indestructi- 
bility, and so on, are certain, regardless of what it is 
that is extended, heavy, and indestructible ; and these 
facts are not changed by the knowledge that matter has 
very many other properties besides these mentioned. 

Very well : in just the same way knowledge of God 
is possible. We can learn constantly more and more 
of His operations, and can understand more and more 
of His character from them ; and though the exhaust- 
less complexity of His infinite perfection will ever 
be beyond our thorough comprehension, though we 
may never be admitted to the understanding of His 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 271 

nature in its essential make-up, yet our knowledge of 
Him may be certain and progressive, and will be as 
superior in elevation and attractiveness as His crea- 
tive personality is superior to the universe which He 
has made. 

The claim that man's thought-processes are es- 
sentially weak and faulty, when applied to the study 
of God, is equally fallacious. If true, it would de- 
stroy all knowledge. God is infinite ; and when we 
finite creatures study His character, we can but get 
bits of information here and there from which to 
form the premises of our reasoning. But this is 
likewise the case in our study of the world about 
us. Here lies the danger of faulty premises, which 
will vitiate all conclusions. But man's spirit-activity, 
in its normal condition, is governed by exact laws. 
Sound thinking, under the guidance of these laws, 
takes note of all possible causes of error in the for- 
mation of premises, and the process of reasoning 
from them, and modifies its conclusions in accord- 
ance with these contingencies. Hence, from partial 
premises we may reach true conclusions. 

But, further, the universe is an organic whole, all 
its parts being mutually related as elements in one 
complete system. The thorough understanding of 
any part involves its relation to all other parts, and 
to the germ-principle, the origin, of the whole. 
Tennyson expresses this, when he says, — 

'• Flower in the crannied wall, 

I pluck you out of tii'- crannies, — 

Hold you here, root and all, in my hand. 

Little flower — but it' I could understand 

Wli.it you are, root and all, and all in all, 

I .should liUOW what God ami man is. M 



272 THE GIST OF IT. 

This origin is God. Thus, God is seen to be the Key 
to all knowledge of the universe, as He is the Origi- 
nator and Fashioner of it all. Out of this comes a 
test of the validity of systematic knowledge, par- 
ticularly in philosophic thinking. If all knowledges 
are thus related, and if the careful following out of 
the relations of any fact, or department of facts, leads 
up to the germ-principle, the origin, of the whole, then 
it results that any system of thought or interpreta- 
tion of facts which, when carried out to its logical 
conclusions in all its relations, leads away from God, 
is by that very fact shown to be fallacious ; and this 
failure may be used as a clue to the discovery of the 
fallacy. 

It is now clear that man is bound, in the exercise 
of his knowing-power, to strive above all things else 
to know God. The nobility of his own nature, and 
the right understanding of the possible sphere of 
knowledge, both demand this of him. He must 
study the physical system of the universe, because it 
is the creation of God, and is the expression, there- 
fore, of His wisdom, His power, and His beneficence. 
The increase of knowledge of the elements and 
forces, in all their combination and working, in the 
entire universe, enlarges the conception of the wis- 
dom needed to devise them, and the power necessary 
to hold them in control. The adaptation of parts, 
so that great ends may be secured without injury, 
and even with positive pleasure to the animate 
world, expands, as it is understood, our idea of the 
good will of God. The study of man's own nature, 
in ail its characteristics, surroundings, and possibili- 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 273 

ties, is in the highest sense obligatory. Man being 
at the summit of the creation of God, the under- 
standing of his nature in its completeness of make- 
up and purpose is of the greatest importance, and 
reveals most of the character of God. All facts, 
from whatever department of investigation, are to 
be dealt with as expressing the Divine character and 
purpose. Thus, all right knowledge is an appre- 
hension of the truth of God, and in all study the 
supreme devotion of the knowing-power is to be 
rendered to God as the Author and Key of all 
learning. 

The power of emotion has been found to be the 
spring of all will action. The depth and power of 
a man's feelings, other things being equal, determine 
the amount of his efficiency in the world. This 
power is cultivated by the contemplation of appro- 
priate objects. The study, therefore, of God, in Mis 
pci feci ion as the Infinite Person, develops most 
strongly all noble and true emotions. These emo- 
tion- one is bound to cultivate above all others. 

God is Infinite Perfection. Toward Him, as such, 
naturally go out, the feedings of delight and adora- 
tion. The Center and Sum of all excellence, the 
desires of man for perfection and affections toward 
the pure and good and beautiful find full satisfaction 
in I Iii n. 

God is Infinite Righteousness. Toward Him, as 
Buch, the feelings of reverence and godly fear are 
exercised. Considering God as Absolute Rectitude, 

man cannot bill be profoundly stirred with feel- 
IUgS of tic- awe. ** God is in heaven, and 



274 THE GIST OF IT. 

thou upon the earth ; therefore let thy words be 
few." 

God is Infinite Goodness. He might have created 
this world far different from what it is. He has 
made it beautiful in all its parts, adapted to the life 
of all His creatures, full of devices for the comfort, 
happiness, and development of every living thing 
which He has made. The provisions for man's life 
are full of indications of His love. The exercise of 
all the functions, even the mere taking of food, is 
made a means of pleasurable sensations. The law 
of compensation which He has established is so 
wide-spread that no life, save of those who, by their 
own act, have wrecked every thing given them, is 
wholly devoid of pleasure. The course of history 
shows it His purpose to care for and bless the 
truly virtuous. Gratitude for the past and present, 
and trust for the future, are consequently His 
due. 

In such ways as these, by the contemplation of 
the character of God, in all modes of its expression, 
one is bound to cultivate and cherish the deepest 
and strongest possible emotions toward Him. 

The will power is the culmination of the spirit- 
activity of man. His duty toward God culminates, 
therefore, in the supreme devotion of his will to 
God. The universe is ordered by law : the inor- 
ganic elements and forces are governed by specific 
and necessary laws ; life, in all its forms in plant and 
animal, uses the material below it, but is guided 
and controlled in that use by definite laws ; man's 
spirit-activity, though freely exerted, yet is free 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 275 

under law, 1 the powers of knowing, emotion and 
will, all having certain principles for guidance in 
their action, culminating in the moral law. 2 All 
these laws are but expressions of the will of the 
Creative God. 

Man's first duty, in the devotion of his will to 
God, is, then, obedience to the laws of his being. 
This covers the entire scope of his activity. A man 
who diligently cultivates his knowing-power at the 
expense of his physical being, and he who becomes 
so absorbed in mere money-getting or political strife 
as to stifle and crush out all the nobier emotions of 
his nature, both fail in the performance of this duty 
of obedience to God. The entire being, in complete 
and harmonious perfection, is to be held under the 
constant control of the will, to the full and right per- 
formance, in continuous development, of all its func- 
tions. At times, in the exigencies of human life, 
it may be necessary to sacrifice the lower interests 
of the being to the higher; as when General Marion 
and his men, for the sake of American liberty, lived 
for months with the woods for a home, and sweet 
potatoes for food ; or as when the Waldenses yielded 
up their lives rather than give up the liberty of con- 
science, which was their natural right from God. 

This obedience must be intelligent. A man should 
recognize his obligations as imposed by God, espe- 
cially in the exercise of his activity with direct refer- 
ence to God, and should consciously and clearly 
render his obedience thereto. Sincerity, promptness, 
and completeness must he shown in this obedience. 
i r. 27. - P. '•*>. 



276 THE GIST OF IT. 

It must, of necessity, be a matter of the heart as well 
as the will. If not, while the will cannot act on its 
true principles, the feelings will be at variance with 
the laws of their activity, and so there will be a 
division and discord in the spirit-life. For the same 
reason it " must neither be hesitating nor partial. 
It must arise from the free, spontaneous, and prompt 
movings of an enlightened will, and must bend all 
the powers of man's being — none left out — to the 
fulfillment of his duty toward his Maker." The in- 
stant the will of God is manifested in any matter, 
the will of man should respond in hearty and entire 
obedience. 

God is a Personal Being, "the Infinite Thought, 
Love and Power." Man's second duty in the supreme 
devotion of his will to God, is, then, the direct ex- 
pression to Him of his sense of His Majesty and Per- 
fection. This duty takes shape in worship, which, as 
we have seen, is a spontaneous and universal act of 
man. The degraded, fetich worship of some tribes 
in Africa, the idolatrous rites of all heathen nations, 
the deification of reason by the French Revolution- 
ists and of humanity by Comte and the Positivists, 
and the elevated homage of the monotheist, all alike 
witness man's natural impulse to express his sense 
of the Divine Excellence. 

Worship is manifested especially in prayer, though 
many observances of days and ceremonies may be 
combined with it. Prayer is the natural and sponta- 
neous outgoing of the soul toward God. Its starting- 
point is in a feeling of dependence and helplessness. 
No man can entirely crush out this impulse. In 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 277 

times of sudden and great trial, the boldest atheists 
will cry out in prayer to God. This impulse works 
out iu various forms. In the contemplation of God's 
Infinite Perfection and Majesty, the spirit of man 
bows in reverence and adoration. When the abso- 
lute rectitude of God is considered, and contrasted 
with his own faulty character, man cries out in con- 
fession of his helplessness and failings, his sin and 
ill-desert. As the infinite love and goodness of God 
are vividly realized, man sends up his petitions for 
help and blessing, for comfort and communion, and 
his thanksgivings for mercies and kindnesses which 
have been extended to him. 

Were each man isolated, this form of worship 
would probably be the only one used. But man is 
in a network of relationships in the family and the 
state, and in all this impulse to worship God mani- 
fests itself. Thus arise the family worship, as in 
the patriarchal stage of civilization, when each man 
was priest in his own house ;. and then the public 
observances of worship by bodies of people associated 
together. 

In all these ways this common impulse strives to 
find expression. It grows out of the essential make- 
up of man's being. Even the sabbath is not a purely 
Christian institution, but is written in the liber of the 
being of man and all the animate creation. 1 

The crowning act of the devotion of man to God 



1 One of the ^Ycnt circus-owners of the country recognised this 
when, in a recent summer, in- refused t<> give entertainments an 
Sunday, saying that to do bo would be to quickly kill all his men 

and heists. 



278 THE GIST OF IT. 

is thus reached in the conscious recognition and sub- 
mission to Him as his Creator and Governor, and the 
effort to come into communion with His Infinitely 
Intelligent and Loving Personality. 

III. 

In the general fund of adages and maxims which 
have lost force by reason of excessive use, none so 
strikingly voices the universal belief in the relation 
of present to future activity as " the boy is father to 
the man." Little by little in his development, the 
boy forms habits, and sets tendencies in operation ; 
and in time his character is fixed in accordance with 
those tendencies. 

Three elements work in this building of character: 
first, the influences from the external world of man 
and Nature ; second, the influences through the in- 
ternal spirit-life, in conscience and the impact of the 
Divine Personality ; third, the activity of the indi- 
vidual himself, yielding to, battling against, using, 
all influences in his own unfolding. Man's charac- 
ter is — to use a term from physics — the resultant of 
the combined action of these three factors in all 
his previous existence. Their interaction in its final 
product, determines what he is to-day ; and this plus 
their present operation fixes what he will be to-mor- 
row. This makes it evident that no man can pre- 
serve a neutral position in the matter of character- 
building. These influences from Nature, man, and 
God, are constantly plajdng upon him, and his own 
spontaneous activity is ceaselessly manifesting itself. 
Hence, results follow, whether he will or no ; and if 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 279 

he do not put forth some directive power in control- 
ling their operation, and determining his own course 
under them, he is liable to sad wreck of prospects, 
and the crushing incubus of a misshapen character. 1 

Herein lies the danger of human life. Every influ- 
ence, from even the most trivial sources, has its effect 
upon the character; and untiring watchfulness is 
needed if any measure of symmetry and perfection 
of development is to be secured. 

Herein lies also the promise and power of the in- 
dividual under all circumstances. While he cannot 
wholly determine what influence shall bear upon 
him, yet it is open to him to settle his own course 
in the midst of these influences, suffering no one to 
operate unduly in manner or degree, and keeping 
his own activity always under control. 

This process, however, though endlessly continu- 
ous, is not such as to leave the question of the com- 
plexion of a man's character always uncertain and 
liable to change. On the contrary, it is by this 
specific operation that the formation and fixity of 
character is rendered possible. The single perform- 
ance of an act makes easier the repetition of that act 
under like recurring circumstances : continued repe- 
tition not only increases the ease of the performance, 
but also begets a tendency, and stimulates the desire, 
to that action whenever the opport unity for its execu- 
tion offers. In time these tendencies become set, 
and habits are fully formed. 

Further than this, it is one of the most startling 
but surest discoveries of modern psychology, that 
1 I\ 182. 



280 THE GIST OF IT. 

this process continues until the habits become un- 
alterably fixed, and the character is in those particu- 
lars unchangeable. Thus, a man may systematically 
and persistently train his body to a special mode 
of action, — e. g., stooped carriage, opium-eating, or 
tobacco-chewing, — until the habit of such action be- 
comes so fixed that only death will end its operation, 
and results alike from its discontinuance or perpetu- 
ation. In the spirit-activity the same law holds. A 
man may discipline himself to certain modes of think- 
ing, until not only his mind operates in those lines 
without conscious control, but also it is impossible 
for him to break away from those ways of thought- 
activity. Training to specific methods of feeling and 
volition results in the absolute fixity of those traits 
of character. This applies equally to the formation 
of good and bad character. The man who carefully 
conserves all the laws of his entire being, and guides 
his activity in careful accordance with those laws, 
finds by and by that his character has been unchange- 
ably fixed in its habits of natural and legitimate 
activity, and that thereby the extent and effective- 
ness of his agency is vastly increased. Just as cer- 
tainly, the man who carelessly or intentionally forms 
habits in violation of the principles of his nature, 
fixes his character in ways of action which necessi- 
tate constant and increasing friction, ultimate wreck. 
When this point is readied, the nature of all after- 
development is determined. So long as existence 
endures, the powers of the being will continue to 
unfold and grow in exercise. But it will all be 
along the lines of these settled habits. Hence, if 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 281 

the character-building has been rational and S)~m- 
metrical, the after-growth is sure to be one of con- 
tinuous progress and increase in intelligent and 
virtuous efficiency. 1 If, conversely, the character 
has been built foolishly and at hap-hazard, the after- 
growth is permanently fixed as one of incessant 
strife, cumulative ruin, — the man's powers more and 
more warring with each other and with his surround- 
ings, shattering themselves in vain battle against the 
fundamental principles of their own activity. Those 
who suffer passion and prejudice, vice, meanness, and 
self-will, to dominate them, may well tremble when 
they consider that they are binding upon themselves 
galling and crushing fetters from which they never 
can be freed. But hope and joy may rightfully in- 
spire him who is rationally striving for perfection 
of manhood, as he remembers that in this effort he 
is forming habits and starting tendencies which by 
and by will crystallize into unchangeable character, 
and furnish a mighty enginery for all further achieve- 
ment. 

Two of the particulars, in which the future is thus 
determined by the present, demand special notice. 
First, and most obvious, is that of moral complex- 
ion. This is every day apparent in all life. Men 
and women are everywhere met who have trained 
themselves in ways of patience, gentleness, decision, 
generosity, or in habits of lying, scandalmonging, 
double-dealing, fraud, until their character is beyond 
all possibility of ruin or reform. 

A second, though less regarded, fact is that the 

i Pp. 222, 239. 



282 THE GIST OF IT. 

measure of all future development is determined by 
present activity. In childhood and early youth the 
powers of observation and memory are, in their spon- 
taneous operation, keener and more active than ever 
again in life, and may then be developed and disci- 
plined to very great capabilities. If this period be 
suffered to go by without their improvement, no 
amount of effort afterward will give them the fullness 
of efficiency which might have been attained if train- 
ing had been begun at the proper time. So, in the 
first awakening of philosophical inquiry in the mind, 
if diligent and careful effort be at once put forth and 
persistently carried on, a depth and scope of thought- 
activity may be developed which, if the process of 
training is long delayed, can never be secured. The 
man who has suffered the possibilities within him of 
moral power to lie dormant until he nears life's 
meridian, may, by a mighty struggle, grow into some- 
what of virtuous power and influence, but can never 
realize the perfection and plenitude of power which 
persistent trial throughout life would have given 
him. In all these and other such particulars, while 
the obligation of training and culture is constantly 
binding, yet 

" There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
Omitted," — 

the golden opportunity is gone ; and, whatever rich- 
ness of knowledge and of power may be secured, the 
full perfection originally possible to those activities 
is forever unattainable. 



THE FACTS OF LIFE. 283 

Man's existence is one continuous whole. 1 Child- 
hood, youth, maturity, declining age, are successive 
stages in one unbroken development ; and the future 
life, though its opening is clouded by the overhang- 
ing mists of death, is but a further movement in the 
same unfolding. Hence, these facts and principles 
of character-building hold uninterruptedly throughout 
the future as well as present sphere of existence, and 
immortal destinies are thus determined by, it may be, 
the least observed actions or omissions of daily life. 
The thought may well startle the most virtuous. 
We are building for eternity ; and the measure and 
color of all that endless growth will be settled by the 
form in which the character crystallizes here. 

The fifth and final of our questions is now an- 
swered. In a complicated network of relationships, 
binding him to varied duties toward himself, his fel- 
lows, the scheme of Nature, and his Creator, God, 
man is building a character, which, in its perfected 
condition, shapes and determines all his future activ- 
ities, his ultimate destiny. 

This ends our study of the facts of life. Of mar- 
vellous variety and complication, yet in correlated 
system, they compose a great, majestic unity. What 
does it all mean? What truth will properly inter- 
pret all these diverse facts, and solve the numerous, 
momentous queries inevitably suggested by them? 

1 Pp. 221, 224. 



PART II. 
THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PACTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

FUNDAMENTAL REQUISITES. 

The fabled Sphinx proposed an ingenious riddle 
to the citizens of Thebes, and devoured one a day of 
those who failed rightly to guess its meaning. Life 
is an enigma infinitely more complex than that of 
the Sphinx ; and all along the course of human his- 
tory, broken, bleaching skeletons tell of the fate of 
those who have missed its true signification. There 
is, then, the greatest reason for most carefully seeking 
life's true interpretation. 

Three important conclusions follow from the pre- 
ceding discussion. The sphere of man's activity has 
been seen to be an organic and accordant whole. 1 
Man's complex activity in both its scope and its dura- 
tion is one. All the varied play of thought and feel- 
ing, all the diverse action in all relationships, form 
one complete unity. 2 The endless progression of 
activity is continuous and unified in all its stages, 
each to each related in direct and vital connection. 3 

i P. 92. 2 p. 2G7. 8 P. 224. 

284 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 285 

But all this activity is marred by the spirit's own 
lawlessness. Made to operate rightly and effectively 
in the outworking of true and noble purposes, it is 
debased and wrecked by its own internal and inces- 
sant strife and waywardness. 1 Hence, the fulfillment 
of the supreme purpose of man's existence in the 
attainment of rational perfection depends on the 
realization of two fundamental conditions. 

First, In some way this ruined condition of the 
spirit must be changed. So long as passion and 
prejudice, greed and deceitfulness, pride and self- 
will, dominate the spirit, its continued activity will 
but result in cumulative sorrow, disaster. Harmoni- 
ous exercise, symmetrical development, of the powers 
of the spirit is impossible, unless the causes and 
effects of friction and wreck in it are removed. The 
true interpretation of life must, therefore, provide 
some scheme for securing this result. Such a 
scheme must, of necessity, involve the following 
particulars : — 

It must provide a perfect model for imitation. 
We are all creatures of imitation; and while slavish 
copying of any model destroys the charm and force 
of individuality, yet, in all our activities, we need a 
pattern in which the governing principles involved 
given concrete form. If the model be in any 
wise defective, the most careful imitation cannot be 
a perfect realization of the original purpose. 

The scheme must present a motive for the imita- 
tion of the model; and this motive must be suffi- 
ciently powerful to incite and sustain the individual 
l P. SL 



286 THE GIST OF IT. 

in the face of all difficulties and discouragements. 
All models of virtuous life are without effect on a 
man who is influenced toward such a life by no 
motives strong enough to counterbalance the hin- 
derances to such a course, and the allurements of 
wrong-doing. 

The scheme must give liberty for the movement 
under the influence of the motive toward the model. 
In this liberty two things are involved : First, free- 
dom, deliverance from every thing in the way of 
prejudice and evil habit, which fetters the spirit- 
activity, and so not only renders impossible any 
effort toward right living, but also causes friction 
and threatens death to the spirit powers. Second, 
power, ability to respond to the great motive and 
move toward the realization of the supreme model. 
Here is the fatal weakness in multitudes of charac- 
ters, — the lack of power to execute that which 
convinces and incites them toward action. 1 

Finally, this scheme must furnish help for man in 
his struggle toward the full realization of the supreme 
model in his own life. Danger and disheartening 
defeat will often come ; and, in some way, counsel, 
encouragement, comfort, and support, must be given 
him in all times of need. Else he will fall, heart- 
broken and wrecked, long before he reaches the goal 
of his efforts. 

When in all these particulars this first condition 
is fulfilled, man is ready to prosecute his spirit-activ- 
ity. Now the second condition of all successful 
lifework must be met. Man must have a dominant, 

l Pp. 26, 243. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 287 

supreme purpose in all his activity. This purpose 
must be one, and must be such that in its realization 
all the powers of the being will find complete and 
united exercise throughout the entire life. The 
reasons for this are obvious. 

Such a purpose will save time and strength in ex- 
ertion. Many people put forth constant and great 
energy all through life, but, because of the lack of 
unity in their actions, never accomplish any thing 
worth the doing. The man who endeavors to master 
half a dozen trades at once does not get control of 
any one as soon as he who devotes his undivided 
attention to that alone. 

A supreme purpose will concentrate effort. The 
obligations and possibilities of life are so great, es- 
pecially in these days of advancing civilization, that 
all a man's power must be exerted to the best advan- 
tage in their realization. No particle of serviceable 
energy can be spared from use in the life-accomplish- 
ment. The man whose life is dominated hy one all- 
controlling purpose unconsciously, as well as with 
deliberate plan, concentrates all his powers on the 
achievement of that purpose. 

A supreme purpose will correlate effort. Other 
things being equal, the man who has the best method 
will achieve the best and greatest success in life. 
Power is consequent upon organization. By right 
combination, in the new testing-machines, pieces of 
iron and steel weighing, in the aggregate, only a few 
hundred pounds, will exert in crushing and pulling 
apart various materials, a force of twenty-five tons. 
So a man, by proper arrangement of learning, sympa- 



288 THE GIST OF IT. 

thy, and practical effort, may exercise a vast measure 
of causative agency. But all such combination is 
organization, which means the putting together of 
various elements, on the basis of some principle which 
pervades and controls the entire system. 1 Such an 
organizing principle in human activity is furnished 
by the one supreme purpose, which originates, groups, 
and guides all endeavor in relation to its own ultimate 
and perfect realization. 

A supreme purpose will quicken energy. Intensity 
of action is dependent upon unity of purpose. It is 
palpable that the man who is without any one defi- 
nite, all-comprehensive aim in life cannot have the 
stimulus to labor which spurs him whose complex 
activity is wholly shaped and directed by a single 
overruling purpose, toward whose achievement the 
entire movement trends. Besides, the continuous 
exercise of the powers in one direction increases 
their capabilities, 2 and thus the measure of efficiency 
is constantly being enlarged. 

A supreme purpose will prevent waste of material. 
An overmastering purpose, controlling and correlat- 
ing all effort, would relieve the embarrassment and 
misery of those learned unfortunates who are unable 
to make practical use of their hard-won acquisitions. 
Every form of knowledge is fitted for some specific 
use, and has its definite place in the general scheme 
of activity. The proper organization of that scheme 
finds place and play for every particle and every kind 
of information and productive energy, and that, too, 
in such mutual relation that every portion performs 
the most and best possible service. 

1 P. 16, et seq. 2 P. 222. 



THE lyTERPRETATlON OF THE FACTS. 289 

A supreme purpose will increase the measure and 
value of achievement. This is self-evident. A life- 
work which is the result of the intelligent and sys- 
tematic prosecution of one aim through all the years 
of activity will of necessity be, in both amount and 
worth, superior to one lacking such unity of purpose, 
endeavor, achievement. No man can, by spasmodic 
or scattered effort, perfect a life-work which will bear 
comparison with that which is the result of years of 
persistent and carefully organized endeavor for the 
realization of one grand purpose. 

These observations are sufficient to establish the 
necessity of a supreme purpose in life. But — what 
supreme purpose? No argument is needed to show 
that, if the foregoing positions be well taken, the 
greatest and grandest life-achievement will be effected 
in the unfolding of the true supreme purpose. Which 
is the true supreme purpose ? How can it be known ? 
Four tests may be mentioned as fitted to determine 
the answer to this question. 

The supreme purpose must furnish employment for 
the entire nature of man. The whole organism, spirit 
and body, is correlated as one unity, in which every 
j art and power has its place as a factor of a complete 
system. The life purpose must fit in with this fact 
of organization, and take advantage of it. Abundant 
and appropriate exercise for all the diverse activity 
of the truly (-(bleated man 1 must be provided for in 
the dominant purpose of life. 

All activity means development, — growth. The 
supreme purpose must take note of this, and arrange 
» P. 238. 



290 THE GIST OF IT. 

for the largest possible and harmonious development 
of all the powers of the being. The obligation to se- 
cure the greatest measure of unfolding and advance- 
ment in all kinds of right culture, must be carefully 
met in the grand aim of life by appropriate stimulus 
and encouragement. 

Many people come short of what they might have 
attained in life, and are disappointed in later years, 
because the purpose of life-activity they formed in 
youth did not consider the increase of power conse- 
quent upon continued exercise. The fully matured 
man will accomplish, in the same time and with the 
same expenditure of energy, an amount of work very 
far beyond what was possible for him in the days of 
boyhood. The supreme purpose must be formed in 
view of this truth, and must be of such a character 
as to furnish full and suitable employment for the 
developing powers of man at every step of their con- 
tinuous unfolding. The longest life is progressive in 
development to its close. Nor does the growth stop 
at death. All through the future life the same prin- 
ciple of increase in power will hold. The grand aim 
of activity must therefore be such that, in the endless 
progression of existence, the growing powers of the 
being may find the sphere of their possible action 
equally enlarging, and so affording complete exercise 
for their evolving capabilities. What brush can 
paint, what tongue describe, the pitiable wreck of 
him whose character crystallizes in the pursuit of a 
dominant aim realized ere middle life is passed, and 
leaving all after-development without a motive and 
goal of endeavor? 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 291 

The supreme purpose must be such that, in its 
realization, man can attain the grand end of hL 
existence. This end is twofold. 

First, The rational completeness of man's being. 1 
Man's body is an organized mechanism, the adjust- 
ment and control by life of physical elements and 
forces, all under the rule of necessary law. Man's 
spirit is a unit with diverse activities, all operating 
freely, but in their normal exercise governed by spe- 
cific principles, culminating in the moral law. The 
rational completeness of man's being is found in the 
harmonious development and training of all its varied 
parts and powers, to the greatest possible efficiency, 
in exact accordance with all the laws of their activity. 

Second, The exercise of the complete being in the 
greatest and grandest possible achievement. Wherein 
is this achievement to be found? The universe is an 
accordant thought-system, created by God, and mov- 
ing id ceaseless progression toward the fruition of 
some divinely conceived aim. As a part of the uni- 
verse, man has a place in the outworking of this all- 
comprehensive purpose. Hence, the greatest and 
grandest achievement possible to him must be the 
realization of that specific phase or portion of the 
divine plan allotted him by God. 

It is now necessary to Consider what scheme of life- 
activity will meet these conditions, providing for the 
^ration of health to man's spirit-life furnishing 
the supreme purpose of all his effort, as determined 
by i 

1 P. 50. 



292 THE GIST OF IT. 



CHAPTER II. 

PROPOSED SCHEMES. 

The need of some solution of the life-problem has 
pressed upon men in all ages, and all have tried to 
find or make an interpretation which will satisfy the 
conditions. In the varying combinations of life- 
activity many diverse plans have been devised. 
They may all, however, be reduced to five. 

I. 

Multitudes of people make the pursuit of happi- 
ness their life-employment. This is not to be won- 
dered at. Happiness is an essential in the absolute 
completeness of man's existence, and the burden of 
wretchedness in the world quite naturally leads peo- 
ple to make its attainment the supreme end of their 
lives. Whether or not their course is wise, does not 
affect the fact. Three general forms of this aim 
may be distinguished. 

Many seek sensuous gratification, the enjoyment 
of the pleasurable sensations x which arise from the 
healthy and unimpeded exercise of the physical func- 
tions. This may be as mere amusement, in hunting, 
boating, lawn-tennis, and other games. Or it may 

1 P. 81. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 293 

degenerate through the " good time " of the society- 
mad maiden and youth, into the beastly rioting of 
the drunken and licentious of both sexes. 

Others strive for like experiences in the spirit-life. 
Some, in the sphere of a3sthetics, devote themselves 
to the study and development of the beautiful in 
Nature and in art, in order to gratify these desires 
and affections of their own being. 1 The waves of 
enthusiasm over sunflowers, crazy -quilts, decorative 
painting, and college costumes, and the excitement 
of fashion, — outside of that which is occasioned by 
mere rivalry and mean self-seeking, — are traceable 
to this cause. 

The third form is the aim of those who labor for 
the pleasure 2 which results in the spirit-life from the 
normal operation of the ethical nature. The press- 
ure upon men of the moral law, 3 their utter ina- 
bility to find perfect rest where its commands are 
not obeyed, and the delightful feelings accompany- 
ing the right performance of virtuous action, lead to 
the setting up, as the supreme purpose of life-en- 
deavor, of the continuous exercise of these emotions. 

While much is to be said as to the rightfulness of 
provisions for the happiness of men in these spheres, 
yet three tacts are fatal to any attempt to make the 
Becuring of happiness, in any or all these forms, 
the supreme purpose of Life-effort. 

The place of the power of emotion, in the exer- 
cise of the spirit power-, [a subordinate. It succeeds 
the action of the knowing-power, but precedes that 

of the will. 1 To make its operation the ultimate 
i Pp i P. 23. P. .a. < Pp. 18, 2 



294 THE GIST OF IT. 

end of action, exalts it out of its proper correla- 
tion. 

Happiness is always simply the accompaniment 
of normal activity. The statement of the law of its 
production, formulated by Sir William Hamilton, 
is in the fullest sense correct. As he put it, happi- 
ness is the reflex of unimpeded energy. In less 
technical language this means, that when the powers 
of the man, body or spirit, are normally and per- 
fectly performing their functions, without hinderance 
of any kind, there result from and accompany such 
action the pleasurable sensations which we term 
happiness. Hence it is evident, that while supreme 
happiness will accompany the achievement of the 
supreme purpose, yet it is not the supreme purpose, 
and, if made so, is itself rendered incapable of 
realization. 

To this statement, concrete emphasis is given by 
the third fact. People who make happiness the 
supreme end of their activity never secure it. When 
pleasure is indulged in as a rest from labor, when it 
has been earned by hard work, and is needed for rec- 
reation, sensations of genuine happiness are experi- 
enced. But beyond the necessities of recreation, it 
palls upon the taste. The most truly miserable 
people in the world are the pleasure-seekers, whose 
main business is the prosecution of ways of amuse- 
ment. The hard worker with hand or brain finds a 
joy in the smooth, healthful play of his powers, in 
his daily tasks ; and when, wearied by the pressure 
of overcrowding duties, he turns for rest aside into 
the courses of pleasure, he enters into them with a 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 295 

keenness of enjoyment, and finds in them relaxation 
and renewing of his powers, which the sated pleas- 
ure-goer, though spending his life in search of it, 
never knows. 

From this it follows, that those who plan for the 
amusement of people beyond the requirements of 
recreation, are not true benefactors of humanity, 
but rather enemies of the race. For purposes of 
selfish gain, they take advantage of this restless, 
unhappy, unsatisfied feeling of their fellows, devise 
elaborate schemes of amusement, fit up at great cost 
gorgeous buildings, and attempt, by flaring posters, 
showy parades, and exquisite music, to attract the 
public to the places they have thus prepared. By 
these means, they rouse to abnormal activity the 
inherent longing for happiness, and generate the 
belief that in thus making it the supreme end of 
action, it may be perfectly realized ; and many an 
earnest soul is drawn into the wild whirl only to 
find, when time and strength and means are spent, 
that he has gone a vain quest, while the remorseless 
vampires who fed upon him have left him neither 
energy nor opportunity to try again his search in 
sonic other way. 

II. 

A second class of persons spend their lives in the 
Strife for wealth. 1 Canon Farrar spoke too truly 
when, in New York recently, he said, "The curse of 
this county is its worship of Mammon.' 1 All, how- 
ever, to whom this statement will apply, arc not to 
I P. 261. 



296 THE GIST OF IT. 

be included in this class. Many consciously seek 
wealth as the means to the securing of some more 
ultimate end. Yet it is unquestionably the case, 
that with a very large number the dominant aim of 
their life-activity is the mere accumulation of wealth, 
regardless of the possibilities of use involved in its 
possession. Men join house to house, and multipty 
the number of their fields, and are content with the 
mere fact of increase. Students load their shelves 
with books, and crowd their memories with facts, 
but are stirred by no desire to avail themselves of 
the enlarged influence made possible by their growth 
in knowledge. In how far is their aim the true 
supreme purpose? and wherein, if at all, does it fail 
as the grand end of life-endeavor? 

As implied above, wealth may be in either of two 
general forms : It may consist in material, concrete, 
form, as houses and lands, flocks and herds, manu- 
factures, stocks and bonds ; or it may be the wealth 
of knowledge, of facts and ideas, acquired by study 
and research. The late William H. Vanderbilt was 
the richest man on the Continent in wealth of the 
first form. But the recently deceased Professor 
Joseph Henry, though his riches were of the second 
form, was as certainly a man of unsurpassed wealth. 

Whether of the first or second kind, wealth is of 
great value. It enlarges the sphere of man's causa- 
tive agency, increasing the means at his command, 
enabling him to put and keep his entire mechanism 
in better condition, and direct its action to greater 
advantage, and thus multiplying the amount and 
value of his achievement. Hence arises the duty of 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 297 

obtaining wealth, of getting the largest and best 
possible control over all the forces and elements of 
Nature, and the facts and principles of spirit-life. 1 
The acquirement of wealth proceeds under the 
operation of a twofold law : productive energy is 
the first requisite. The idler and dreamer never 
put forth any effort in the actual making or produc- 
tion of any thing, and, of course, they never secure 
wealth. Hard work, manual or mental, lies at the 
basis. This hard work, though, must be in some 
productive manner. The maniac may wear himself 
out pounding a stone wall, or living over again some 
experiences of his past spirit-life, but he never gains 
wealth thereby. But, secondly, that which is thus 
acquired must not be at once consumed in some 
form of personal gratification. The hard-working 
mechanic who earns good wages, but spends them 
as rapidly as they are paid over to him, never obtains 
wealth. The student who is content to let his ac- 
quisitions rest in the satisfaction of his personal 
vanity or pleasure, finds they soon rust, and his 
wealth vanishes. A margin above the needs of 
immediate consumption must be reserved, and this 
must be used in further acquirement. 

There are, then, two particulars in which the 
claim that wealth may be considered the ultimate 
aim of life-effort is suicidally defective: — 

Wealth is simply the mechanism of achievement. 
To consider the ownership of ;i greal piece of ma- 
chinery the aim of life, is obviously absurd. Yet this 
is what is done by those who make the mere posses- 

« I'. 93. 



298 THE GIST OF IT. 

sion of riches the final goal of their accomplishment. 
Wealth is valueless, except when, as in the cases 
above cited, it is made a means for the furthering of 
ends superior to itself. Still, wealth may be secured 
even in large measure, though sought wholly for 
itself. 

But, secondly, this scheme provides no ways in 
which wealth may, when obtained, be put to service. 
For this reason, people who attempt to work out 
this principle are often greatly distressed to know how 
to use their riches after they have been acquired. It 
is unreasonable to suppose that any kind or quantity 
of any form or combination of forms of wealth in all 
the universe of material and spirit existence with 
which we are connected, should be without some 
good use. When, therefore, this scheme fails to 
provide any method and object for turning to prac- 
tical service the wealth which may be obtained, it 
thereby proves itself unable to meet the tests of the 
supreme purpose. 

III. 

There is something strangely fascinating in the 
thought of fame. Men love to be known and spoken 
of by their fellows. Notice in the local newspaper 
has its reflex influence on the individual, usually far 
beyond its true importance. Few, indeed, are wholly 
indifferent to the commendation or sneer of the pet- 
tiest " man of the quill." Beyond this, the fact of 
national or world-wide and enduring reputation fur- 
nishes an incentive and a caution, often impercepti- 
ble when powerfully operating, to most men. He is 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 299 

a rare man who would not like to have his name, as 
that of Luther or Washington, go " ringing down the 
halls of Time," a comfort and inspiration to the race 
through centuries after his life is ended; while only 
the hardened criminal can coolly contemplate the 
prospect of his name becoming, like that of Judas or 
Benedict Arnold, a by-word and a warning through 
all future generations. 

This feeling is not without rational basis. The 
esteem in which we are held by our fellow-men has 
much to do with the harmony and successfulness of 
our lives. A good name not only insures respect 
and confidence, but increases and intensifies influ- 
ence. Under similar conditions Mr. Moody's mere 
affirmation would have more weight, even in the 
court-room, than an ordinary man's affidavit. Con- 
trariwise, an evil report destroys confidence, limits 
influence, and quickly produces social, financial, 
political, ruin. It is, then, both necessary and right 
that regard be had to the esteem in which one is 
held by others, — necessary, lest envious slanders go 
unchallenged until insurmountable prejudice is en- 
gendered; right, because thereby needless collision 
may be avoided, incipient faults corrected, and right- 
ful extension of influence secured. 

When, however, this is made an end, the end, of 
action, when the life-activity is throughout planned 
and directed by the all-mastering ambition for faint', 

difficulties at once arise. No reward of human effort 
is so uncertain, so independent of the person's own 
control, as fame. It is often produced by the most 
trivial causes. Beau Brumniel is still remembered 



300 TEE GIST OF IT. 

for the inimitable grace with which he tied his 
cravat ; and one of the modern prima donnas is said 
to owe her unwonted popularity to the magical charm 
of her appearance and address when first meeting 
her audiences. One man is born son of a king or 
president, and though, perchance, incapable of inde- 
pendent action, yet, because of the accident of his 
birth, plays a prominent part in history. Another, 
far more worthy of eminence, is kept in obscurity by 
circumstances equally beyond his control. In no 
way is it possible to determine action so as certainly, 
to secure a place among the world's immortal names. 
When such fame, in cases where it rests on some 
basis of genuine worth, is obtained, the means by 
which it is acquired may be recognized, and the con- 
dition of their operation formulated into a law, as 
follows : Fame is the result of special hard work and 
sejf-denial for the benefit of others in matters of com- 
mon concern. Of this our national history affords 
no more forcible example than Gen. Grant. Greater 
fame can be given no man than was won by him ; 
and it all resulted from the tremendous energy, self- 
sacrificing endurance, and masterly skill, with which, 
in the hour of the nation's peril, he guided and gov- 
erned her vital interests. Yet no man can, by the 
application of this law, be sure of the result. No 
proper recognition has ever been made of Gen. Fre- 
mont's inestimable services to the nation in explor- 
ing the Pacific slope. While only a few persons 
even know that the Rev. Dr. Whitman, a home mis- 
sionary, was the chief agent in securing Oregon to 
this country. 



THE INTERPRETATION GF THE FACTS. 301 

Additional to this fact of uncertainty of attainment 
are two other particulars, equally fatal to the claims 
of this to be the supreme purpose of life-action. 

In the nature of the case, great fame can only be 
obtained by a few. The circumstances of actions 
which produce it are of rare occurrence. It is true 
that circumstances do not make the man. Had Gen. 
Grant not been Grant, the opportunities of distinc- 
tion afforded by the war would have been of little 
benefit to him, for he could not have used them as 
he did. Yet, it is also true that the man's action is 
conditioned by the circumstances in which he is. 
Had the war not occurred, Grant's great military 
genius, so highly commended by the German soldier, 
Von Moltke, would never have found place for devel- 
opment. But we are endeavoring in this discussion 
to find something which will answer as supreme 
purpose, for not simply the favored few, but as well 
for the great unknown multitude. 

The influence in character-building of the con- 
scious effort for fame is lamentably disastrous. No 
reputation is always the same for two successive 
periods, or with all people in the same period. All 
men are therefore subjected to the friction of con- 
flicting opinions and changing judgments about them. 
This is abnormally excited in the case of the man 
who makes the popular good will his goal. He 
becomes the conscious focus of public sentiment; 
criticism and flattery play upon him with undue 
effect; unavoidable differences of opinion and petty 
censures chafe him ; and his happiness is at the mercy 
of vile and irresponsible persons, whose action is as 



302 THE GIST OF IT. 

variable as the blowing of the wind. Out of this 
comes the abandonment in conduct of the principle 
of absolute rectitude laid down by the moral law, 
and the adoption of some relative and flexible stand- 
ard. The unmanly methods, shameful associations, 
and moral wreck, of the political demagogue, too 
plainly illustrate the final result of such action. 

It should be added, and the fact is intelligible 
from the last statement, that fame in all worthy 
forms comes to the individual in the performance 
of right and unselfish action. What conception had 
Washington of even the present grandeur of the 
country for whose freedom he so fought? He tried 
to do his duty, letting results take care of them- 
selves. His co-worker, General Gage, thirsted and 
labored for distinction, and is chiefly remembered 
for jealous actions little to his credit. 

IV. 

Wealth and fame are both sought, in many in- 
stances, as means for the obtaining of a further end 
— power. This is their legitimate use, and is a 
rightful possession of every human being. Man is 
an originating source of causal agency, adjusting 
and using forces in the spontaneous working of his 
free and intelligent will. He is thus not to be 
censured, but rather praised, when by lawful means, 
and in right form and measure, he extends the reach 
of his causal efficiency, his power. It is evident that 
this growth must follow the predetermined lines of 
man's possible activity, and assume certain corre- 
spondent forms. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 303 

A man may increase the strength of his physical 
system, or combine natural materials in such ways 
as to enable his own physical force to accomplish 
greater results than before possible. Thus, prize- 
fighters, as Sullivan, and pedestrians, as Weston, 
have, by careful training, developed extraordinary 
muscular power. In the new testing-machines 1 the 
enormous pressure exercised is produced, through 
skillful combination of materials, by the expendi- 
ture on the part of the operator of an amount of 
force equivalent to only twenty pounds of pressure. 

This form, physical power, is itself dependent for 
increase on a higher form, — the power of knowledge. 
In a very wide sense, knowledge is power. 2 There 
is no more power in the forces of Nature now than 
they possessed thousands of years ago. Man's knowl- 
edge of them is vastly greater, and, in consequence, 
his power over them and their practical efficiency 
are many times multiplied. The human body is in 
do way different now, in composition or organization, 
from what it always has been. But men know more 
about it ; and because of the advancement of anat- 
omy, physiology, and hygiene, assisted by the products 
of some other departments of knowledge, training and 
medical science alike have been much enlarged in 
power. None have been added to the chemical prop- 
erties of matter since it came into being. The won- 
derful progress in man's chemical operations, as in 
various manufactures, is all Hue to increased knowl- 
edge of those properties. Human nature has not 

changed in its essential elements during the Cen- 
to o 

1 P. 287. - Pp. 62 • 



304 THE GIST OF IT. 

turies since it began its development. Yet, spirit- 
activity and character-building can now be prose- 
cuted with great saving of time and waste, and far 
greater effectiveness and symmetry than heretofore. 
Better psychology and consequent improved scien- 
tific method account for the change. 

In numberless such ways it is being everywhere 
proven, that, while knowledge is not, in the exact 
scientific sense, power, it is an indispensable condi- 
tion of all power ; and its growth increases in won- 
derful ratio the causal agency of man. 

In the emotions, also, there is power. 1 A man's 
own action is determined in amount and persistency 
by the depth and continuance of his emotions. A 
mighty passion will shape and affect a man's action 
all his life long. More than this, certain forms of 
feeling give power over others. Some people have 
a richness and fullness of sympathy and affection 
which gives them very great influence. The gener- 
ous, unselfish, man or woman, whose heart is brim- 
ming with love for others, exerts, from that very fact, 
an influence sometimes much in excess of what their 
real worth and wisdom justify. While ambition, 
jealousy, hatred, in extreme forms, are terrible forces 
of mischief in the life of both the individual and the 
nation. 

The will is the culmination of the spirit-activity 
and the expression of the spirit's power. 2 In this 
there are many natural differences among men. At 
one extreme is the man who is all action, and has no 
patience with any thing which cannot be immediately 

i P. 239. 2 P. 27. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 305 

put into execution ; at the other, the weak, irresolute, 
unfortunate, who has almost no power of self-direc- 
tion, and is the spoil of all external influences. But 
this, just as certainly as any other of man's capabili- 
ties, may be cultivated, and immense growth made 
in promptness, decision, and persistency of will. In 
concrete embodiment the exercise of this form of 
power is manifested as authority, dominion. Under 
proper conditions, as in the family and constitutional 
governments, it becomes a valuable and helpful, as it 
is a necessary and powerful, element in social organ- 
ization. Operating unrestrained, it becomes absolute 
sovereignty, or " one-man power," and degenerates 
into despotism and tyranny. 

As the laws of man's complex nature culminate in 
the moral law, so his putting-forth of energy reaches 
its climax in moral power. This must not be con- 
fused with soul-power, a term which either is loosely 
used for strength of feeling, or refers to the native 
energy of the spirit itself — the capacity for exert- 
ing power inhering essentially in the spirit. Moral 
power is that form which is developed by clear 
perceptions of right and wrong, keen sensibility to 
moral issues, and decided, long-continued exercise of 
the will in obedience to the moral law. 1 It is this that 
determines the stature of the man's character. The 
highesl type of heroism is impossible without a grand 
moral ideal and moral courage. Instances are nu- 
merous of the control of large and infuriated masses 
of people by one man of great moral power. 

Years ago, in a penitentiary in one of the Eastern 

I Pp. 241,212. 



306 THE GIST OF IT. 

States, the convicts, to the number of several hun- 
dred, mutinied one morning, 'and drove their keepers 
from the shop in which they were at work. The 
warden sent in affright to the adjacent city for aid. 
A United-States army officer was in the city with a 
mere handful of troops, — twenty-five or thirty, — and 
at once went to the prison. The convicts had all 
gathered at one end of the shop, a long building, 
armed with axes, hammers, chisels, and other tools 
of their work. Filing in at the opposite end of the 
building, the intrepid officer drew up his little com- 
pany in line, bade them load their muskets in full 
view of the prisoners, and take careful aim at the 
crowd ; then, taking out his watch, he said to the 
criminals, "The man that remains in this building 
at the end of three minutes shall be shot dead." 
What cared that throng of armed desperadoes, in the 
first flush of partial freedom, for the insignificant 
bunch of troops facing them ? But a minute is a 
long, long time to stand and look quietly into the 
muzzle of a loaded gun, with no sound save the tick- 
ing of the watch whose moving hands determine the 
instant when the falling hammer will speed the ball 
on its errand of death. Ere it elapsed, some of the 
convicts nearest the door dropped quietly out ; and, 
before half the allotted time had gone by, the entire 
number had left the shop, and returned to their cells. 
On the morning of April 15, 1865, when the nation 
was thrilling in anger and indefinable dread at the 
assassination of President Lincoln, a mass of fifty 
thousand men gathered in New- York City around the 
Exchange Building. General B. F. Butler addressed, 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 307 

but was not able to disperse, them. The crowd were 
armed, enraged. " Suddenly, from the extreme right 
wing of the crowd rose a cry, ' " The World ! " The 
office of " The World ! " " The World ! " ' and the 
mass began to. move, as one man, toward that office. 
Where would this end ? Destruction of property, 
loss of life, violence and anarchy, were in that move- 
ment, and apparently no human power could now 
check its progress. Then a man stepped to the front 
of the balcony, and held his arm aloft.' His command- 
ing attitude arrested universal attention. Perhaps 
he was going to give them the latest news. They 
waited. But while they listened, the voice — it was 
the voice of General Garfield — onl} r said, ' Fellow- 
citizens, clouds and darkness are round about Him. 
His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds of the 
skies. Justice and judgment are the establishment 
of His throne. Mercy and truth shall go before His 
face. Fellow-citizens, God reigns, and the govern- 
ment at Washington still lives.' The tide of popular 
fury was stayed. The impossible had been accom- 
plished. u The World " was saved, but that was not 
much. The safety of a great city was secured, and 
that was much." x 

Such are the achievements of moral power, and 
well may one aspire to its possession and exercise. 

The law of the acquirement of power, which holds 
alike through all the forms, is fourfold. The individ- 
ual must carefully study the sources, elements, and 
Conditions of the form of power he wishes to obtain. 
Earnest and persistent effort must be put forth in the 
i Ridpatli: Life of Garfield, pp. 103, 104. 



308 THE GIST OF IT. 

practical application of the knowledge thus secured. 
The capabilities of the individual exercised in this 
application must be subjected to careful training and 
curbing ; to, in fact, rigid discipline. Finally, the 
price demanded in every case is sacrifice of some 
kind. 

Take the simplest illustrations. 1 

The would-be athlete must make a careful study of 
the nature and conditions of working of the muscles 
he wishes specially to develop, and devise a suitable 
method for their training. He must then persistently 
apply this method, restraining every impulse which 
would operate unfavorably, disciplining his powers 
to work regardless of disturbing influences, and mak- 
ing great sacrifices of time spent in pleasure and other 
employments, all of which will interfere with the 
accomplishment of his purpose. 

The aspirant to special thought-power must follow 
the same law. Forming a theory of education adapted 
to his special characteristics, circumstances, and pur- 
poses, he must steadily apply it in actual thinking. 
Severe discipline will be necessary ; for he must ac- 
quire the ability to pursue a connected train of 
thought uninterruptedly for hours at a time, and this 
means very strenuous effort. Sacrifice will also be 
demanded of him ; and, just as the goal of his labors 
is loftier and more difficult of attainment than that 
of the athlete, so the self-denial and deprivations 
made necessary are greater and harder to endure. 

1 These illustrations may seem to some elahoratelj 7 wrought out, 
" spun too fine; " hut they must he made, in accordance with all the 
foregoing discussion, scientifically exact. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 309 

In the culminating sphere of action, precisely the 
same law holds. The seeker for moral power must 
get a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the 
moral law, of his own nature as correlated in activity 
under that law, and of the surroundings which con- 
dition his movements. Devising, then, a method for 
the desired development suited to these facts, he must 
steadily and unwearyingly apply that method in the 
actual exercise of his ethical nature. The multi- 
tudinous impulsions and allurements to wrong, in 
thought and action, must be resisted, and the spirit- 
activities purposely, repeatedly, and persistently em- 
ployed in true moral action until disciplined into 
habitual obedience to absolute right. All this involves 
severe trial; for the effort must be continued through 
defeat and mortification, in the face of one's own 
weaknesses and evil tendencies. Hence, the sacrifices 
required will here be the greatest and most difficult 
to make. Sometimes a dearly loved friend or the 
cherished life-ambition must be given up, and the 
man racked and strained through every fiber of his 
being, ere the hoped-for power can be secured. 

It is evident, now, that power, in each and all these 
forms, is a right and necessary acquirement of man. 
As a causal agent his activity can manifest itself only 
in power, and the perfection of his agency demands 
the completeness of that manifestation. It is, there- 
fore, the most important and the culmination of all the 
purposes thus far considered. But — shall man set 
power, in any of these forms or in all combined, be- 
fore himself as the supreme purpose of his life-activity? 

As man's nature is a complex bill correlated unity, 



310 TUE GIST OF IT. 

and as his varied activities are likewise organized into 
a complete and integral whole, so the perfection of 
his being requires the attainment and exercise, in 
harmonious combination and interdependence, of all 
these forms of power. No argument is necessary to 
show that, if any one of the kinds of power be not 
secured, or if any be developed too meageiiy or too 
strongly for the symmetry of the whole, the perfec- 
tion of the being is in so far marred. At this stage 
in our discussion it goes without saying that the man 
who is simply an athlete, simply a thinker, simply a 
man of warm impulses or of practical efficiency, simply 
a man of good moral action ; or who has a measure of 
these, but imperfectly and not in proper correlation, 
— such a man is not a complete being. The ques- 
tion, then, is, Shall power in the wide sense — the 
correlated, unified combination of all these diverse 
forms — be taken as the supreme purpose of life- 
endeavor ? 

At the outset a fatal objection presents itself. 
Power is essentiall} 7 a means to a more ultimate end. 
Achievement is the great aim of life, and achieve- 
ment is the result of the effective exercise of power. 
The greater the power, and the more skillful its ap- 
plication, the greater is the resulting achievement. 
The error of the man who aims at the perfection of 
his mechanism l is thus repeated, in a subtly refined 
form, by him whose ultimate purpose is simply the 
causal efficiency, the power, of that mechanism. The 
man who spends his time and thought in the perfec- 
tion of his body, and he whose life-ambition is the 

1 Pp. 252, 253. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 311 

acquirement of power with no thought and plan for 
using it in achievement, are at one in their mistake 
with him who accumulates and hoards, in the squalor 
of a wretched hovel, the bits of shining gold, which in 
wiser hands are so potent a factor in commercial life. 

If, however, this be taken as the supreme purpose, 
it then becomes a momentous question, how are the 
activities to be correlated in realizing the purpose ? 
It is obviously a task of very great magnitude to 
determine in just what manner, time, and amount, 
each form of activity shall be exerted. The problem 
involves a vast number of data, requiring more than 
the powers of a Newton for their comprehension. No 
model is furnished in which the exact correlation of 
all the activities is perfectly exemplified, and so each 
can determine therefrom how to regulate his own 
life. Worst of all, the combination of the data varies 
with each individual life, and hence the problem must 
be solved afresh for each. 

Shall each for himself attempt the determination 
of a course wherein harmonious working and devel- 
opment of all the activities shall result in this attain- 
ment of power ? This is obviously impossible, as 
well as unwise. The working out of a scheme for 
the development of any one form of power is the task 
of a lifetime. The elaboration of a comprehensive 
plan for the whole nature is far beyond the compass 
of any human life. Besides, few people have time 
for the organization of any scheme. The demands 
of immediate duty compel the attention of the vast 
majority of the race, and forbid their expenditure of 
time and strength in such thinking. Further, the 



312 THE GIST OF IT. 

plan must be laid early in life, at the outset of char- 
acter-building, and must cover the entire future ac- 
tivity. If not, time may be spent in the development 
of some special form of power, which the unfolding 
future will show unsuited to the necessary activities 
of the individual ; while exigencies may arise demand- 
ing, to meet them, a kind of power to whose acquire- 
ment insufficient attention has been paid. 1 More 
than all, this process of development of power is, at 
the same time, one of character-building; and in this, 
as we have seen, 2 mistakes are dangerous. If the 
plan be defective, the most careful effort will only the 
more quickly and firmly crystallize the character in im- 
perfect form, and make the aim forever unattainable. 

Two further facts conclusively close the case against 
power as the supreme purpose of life-endeavor. 

The growth of power, in all its forms, is uncon- 
scious. If the conditions be supplied, and all adverse 
influences removed, the power will be naturally de- 
veloped. But the individual cannot at all determine, 
from time to time, the exact measure of his develop- 
ing power, save in the lowest form of physical power, 
and there imperfectly. Except in rare instances, 
one cannot tell whether he have enough power to 
do or endure some specific work or trial until the 
emergency comes, and the effort is actually made. 

Then, the reflex influence of the conscious en- 
deavor for power, in all the higher forms, defeats the 
purpose. There is no evidence of scientific value, 
that ever any man who deliberately put power before 
himself as the goal of his consciously directed ac- 

% Pp, 174-179, ? P. 251, 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 313 

tivity, succeeded in escaping the snares of inordinate 
ambition. In even the culminating form, moral 
power, the conscious effort for its attainment, as the 
supreme end of action, leads to morbid self-con- 
sciousness, self-righteousness, and selfishness, and so 
prevents the wished-for success. 

The foregoing discussion of pleasure, wealth, fame, 
and power, as proposed for the supreme purpose of 
life-action, has unfolded the specific defects in each 
which forbid its adoption. Certain other objections, 
which apply to them all, must now be considered. 

Each has its definite place and operation in human 
life, and completeness of being will necessarily in- 
volve them all. Happiness is the index of the free 
and healthful exercise of the various functions, and 
pleasurable activity may be indulged in for pur- 
poses of recreation. Wealth is a mighty instrument 
in the extension of man's causal agency, and, in 
some form and measure, is an essential means in all 
achievement. Fame enlarges the sphere of man's 
influence over his fellows; and while no effort will 
certainly secure it, and all attempts to obtain it are 
therefore wrong, yet care must be taken to avoid 
what may limit influence or afford ground for evil 
report. Power is the essential element in causal it}', 
and hence needful as the culmination and product 
of all man's preparation for activity. When, now, 
any one of these is made the supreme purpose of 
life, some or all of the others are at once rendered 
impossible of attainment in any appreciable degree. 

The pleasure/Seeker is the most unfortunate of the 



314 THE GIST OF IT. 

number. Animal pleasure, when sought supremely, 
cuts out all higher enjoyment, to say nothing of 
other essentials of life ; while the higher forms of 
pleasure, when in this way striven for, leave no room 
for any advance in more important lines of develop- 
ment. Wealth demands, for its attainment as the 
ultimate end, the banishment of all thought of an}' 
thing else. Even more. The two forms of wealth 
are mutually exclusive. Each rules alone over its 
devotees, and jealously exiles all effort for the other. 
The thirst for fame, and the greed for power, alike 
dehumanize the individual, developing all that is 
grasping and selfish, marring all happiness, and 
making impossible their own perfect realization. 

No one of these purposes presents any adequate 
provision for repairing the wreck of man's spirit- 
activity. They thus fail in the fundamental condi- 
tion of their own attainment. Until the causes and 
effects of this marred condition of the spirit be re- 
moved, all its activity will, of necessity, be faulty, 
and without proper result. 

These purposes — save the last, which has been 
found to be beyond the sphere of man's self-pur- 
posed accomplishment — are defective, in that they 
only in part provide for the use of man's capabilities. 
His manifold nature can fully exert itself, only when 
all its diverse activities are given appropriate em- 
ployment. The attempt to turn all the energy of 
the being into one of its numerous channels of mani- 
festation fails, and from this there results waste of 
power. Man's achievements are, at best, so small, 
that he can afford no such prodigality. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 815 

But partial exercise of the being means partial 
development, for this is the fruit of exercise. 1 The 
failure to put forth energy in any of the forms of 
activity, prevents the unfolding and growth of that 
form of action. As all the capabilities of the being 
are essential components, these purposes, providing 
no appropriate exercise for many of them, make vain 
all hope of that rational completeness which is the 
goal of man's character-building. 

Another grave difficulty arises from the fact that 
none of these purposes are certain of attainment. 
Man has not control over all the elements involved 
in the endeavor to realize any of them. 

" The best-laid schemes o' mice and men, 
Gang aft agley," 

And time and again crushing defeat and life-long 
sorrow come to men, when most carefully pursuing 
some of these purposes, by reason of the working of 
forces wholly beyond their control. What folly to 
present to men for the all-absorbed employment of 
their entire being, purposes which unavoidable 
disease, the midnight robber, or the cowardly slan- 
derer, may wholly defeat! The child of time, born 
lor eternity, man's actions must terminate on some 
aim whose realization is beyond the destructive 
touch of siicli influences. 

Should, however, these purposes be realized, their 

retention is, of necessity, but temporary. Pleasure 

is the mosl evanescent of all possessions. A breath 

of air will mar its perfection, a poisoned word or a 

i P, 222. 



316 THE GIST OF IT. 

bitter experience will remove the conditions of its 
production. The others are subject to all the emer- 
gencies of life, which in a day consign the wealthy, 
famous, powerful, to poverty, ignominy, helplessness. 
If retained throughout this life, death comes at last 
to all, and only those acquirements which have been 
wrought into the fiber of permanent character can 
be taken into the unseen world. 

V. 

In view of all these facts, some persons set before 
themselves the purpose of rational perfection, com- 
pleteness, of being, as the ultimate end of their life- 
activity. In various ways they move toward this 
achievement. But, for reasons already given, no 
humanly devised scheme for attaining this end has 
ever succeeded. Time and again, in the course of 
human history, earnest effort has been made to for- 
mulate a plan by which man could reach the rational 
perfection of his developing being ; and, time and 
again, sorrowful defeat has marked each effort a 
failure. Ethics, philosophy, literature, science, each 
in turn, have attempted the problem, and all have 
met the same disastrous rebuff. The man who to- 
day puts forward any of these schemes, in old or 
new form, as fitted to realize the needs of man's 
situation, is inviting his fellow-men to a repetition 
of the wrecking disappointment of past struggles. 
The renewal of man's crippled nature, the formation 
of a plan covering the entire sphere of man's im- 
mortal activity and adapted to the particular cir- 
cumstances of each individual, and the provision of 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 317 

an impelling, sustaining, controlling, and guiding, 
power, sufficient to enable man to realize the pur- 
pose, are matters wholly beyond the reach of human 
power, and yet essential elements in right character- 
building and achievement. 

Matthew Arnold advocates, as the panacea for all 
man's woes, and satisfaction for all his desires, De- 
parture from iniquity. 1 But " there's the rub." 
Departure from iniquity is impossible without the 
fulfillment of the above conditions, and in regard to 
these Mr. Arnold is no more successful than many 
far abler men. The race has tried to do that thing 
for ages, and never has, by its own power, succeeded. 
All the factors of success are outside the limits of 
human ability. Besides, mere cessation of wrong- 
doing is but the beginning. Innocence is a negative 
element in character ; and for the positive develop- 
ment of symmetrical completeness of being provision 
must still be made. 

Some other solution must be found, or the great 
problem be forever undetermined, and wretched 
humanity left to the hopelessness of continuous and 
ever-darkening failure. 

i St. Paul and Protestantism, p. viii, et scq. 



318 THE GIST OF IT. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE PBOBLEM SOLVED. 

The life-problem, made more complex by the dis- 
order of man's spirit-activity, would still, if that 
wreck were all repaired, be beyond the compass of 
human power. Man must, therefore, seek some 
solution from outside himself. 

Where shall this be found? To whom may he 
make successful appeal ? Shall he go to the forces 
and elements of Nature? Blind, unconscious exist- 
ences, they form the physical mechanism which is 
the visible sphere and material of intelligent action, 
but are necessarily determined in all their movement 
and combination by independent and controlling 
thought and will. Shall he turn to history for aid? 
It is but the recorded experience of his own race, 
and utters no word of hope. He has reason to think 
that the Creator has placed in the universe intelli- 
gences other than himself. But, if so, what succor 
can they afford ? He has no definite knowledge of 
them, no means of obtaining information ; he knows 
not how to come into communication with them ; 1 

1 Modern spiritualism is scientifically one of the "flimsiest " delu- 
sions that ever influenced mankind. Strictly scientific tests are 
always avoided by its advocates. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 319 

he is certain regarding them only that, if they exist, 
they must, like himself, as created beings, be in a 
network of relationships and duties requiring their 
whole attention. 

There is no being in the created universe to whom 
man can look. The infinite God, Creator of the uni- 
verse, is the only possible Source of help. God has 
perfect knowledge of the situation, for He created, 
organized, and controls the universe, of which man 
is a part. God has full opportunity to act, for He 
is independent of all save self-imposed relationships 
and obligations. God has all-sufficient power, for 
all causal agency in the universe proceeds primarily 
from His infinite efficiency. It is evident that God, 
and only He, can provide a solution of the problem. 
It is also clear that a scheme furnished by God will 
perfectly meet all the necessary conditions, and 
insure man's attainment of the supreme purpose. 

Bui it is asserted that God will not give any 
solution, and that, if He did provide one, He could 
not reveal it to man. 

The first of these claims is obviously absurd. No 
human being can read the mind of one of his fellows, 
and predict his action. How, then, can he know any 
thing whatever of the purposes of God, unless, and 
in >o far as, God reveals them to him? It becomes 
necessary, therefore, to show where God lias pro- 
claimed His purpose to withhold aid from man. 

The second claim is, if the foregoing argument be 
valid, utterly unphilosophical. If God be the ( rea- 
tor and Upholder of the universe, 1 if it be all orgau- 
i P. !<;;;. 



320 THE GIST OF IT. 

ized and bound in mutual relation of parts by Him, 1 
the conclusion is inevitable that it is possible for 
Him to reveal His purposes, and exert immediate 
agency, at any time in any portion of the universe. 
It is incredible that the Creator should produce any 
thing which should be or become outside His control ; 
and that He should be unable to make known His 
will to or through that which He has made and 
controls, is equally unworthy of belief. 

This position is strengthened by some other con- 
siderations. That the infinite Intelligence should be 
purposeless in action, is inconceivable. The care- 
fully articulated and progressively unfolding universe 
must, then, be working out some plan for the realiza- 
tion of a worthy, ultimate end. But this plan must 
be all-comprehensive, furnishing place and play for 
every constituent element in the universe. Hence, 
the entire activity of man, as a race and as individ- 
uals, forms an essential factor in the realization of 
the divine purpose. 

Yet here a difficulty arises. The unintelligent 
creation, being incapable of independent action, and 
always under the direct control of the Creator, is the 
immediate instrument and expression of His pur- 
poses. Man, however, has been created by God a 
free, spontaneously acting intelligence. His action, 
if perfect, is distinctively rational. If, then, he is to 
operate effectively in working out his allotted part 
in the divine plan, he must know what he is to do. 2 
The entire plan, even in so far as it concerns his 
personal existence, need not be told each one at the 

i Pp. 266, 271. 2 P. 265. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 321 

start. Obviously, this would be unwise : the incom- 
prehensible magnitude of the eternally extending 
plan would bewilder and dishearten. But so much 
knowledge as is needed to make his activity in the 
full sense rational, must be given him. Further, 
the relation of God and man is that of Father and 
child, — a relation whose harmonious and effective 
working is impossible without inter-communication 
of the members. 

From all this it follows that even if man's spirit- 
life were in perfect working order, free from all the 
present marks of wreck, yet communion with God, 
and revelation to man of God's purposes regarding 
him, would be necessary for him ; and, finally, if God 
chooses to provide a scheme for the renewal of man's 
nature, it is possible and easy for him, along some of 
the lines of communication established by Himself, 
to make that scheme known to man. 

Christianity claims to be this divinely originated 
and revealed solution of the life-problem. Does it 
meet the tests of that solution ? 

Christianity proposes a scheme for the renewal of 
man's spirit-activity. 

Christianity sets before man the only perfect Model 
of human character in history. In all the records of 
human life the character of Jesus of Nazareth stands 
in solitary grandeur, alone and unapproachable. The 
greatest triumphs of previous development fall far 
within the limits of human imperfection. The grand- 
esl products of after-effort and -unfolding do not pass 
that bound. Bu1 all down the ages, through storm 
after storm of scathing criticism and furious invec- 



322 THE GIST OF IT. 

tive, the sublime challenge of Jesus to His persecut- 
ing countrymen, "Which of you convinceth Me of 
sin?" l remains unanswered. Nineteen centuries of 
rigorous search have failed to find a flaw in the spot- 
less life portrayed so fully in the simple memoirs of 
the Gospels. The whole round of human duty, as it 
came to Him, was perfectly fulfilled. His influence 
in the world, though with no ordinary means of 
advancement, has been increasingly powerful; and 
to-day, as often before, there are millions, who, 
swayed only by His moral power and love, would 
willingly give up their lives for Him. 

Christianity develops the supreme motive for imi- 
tation of the Model. All appeals to desires and affec- 
tions for right, for perfection, for power, are weakened 
or perverted in their effect by the condition of man's 
spirit-life. In the wreck of life, selfishness, in some 
form, dominates the entire activity: none of these 
motives are of sufficient power to overcome its bale- 
ful influence. The strongest motive in combating 
selfishness is love for a person. The affection of the 
lover for his sweetheart, the husband for his wife, 
the mother for her child, the one rescued from death 
for his deliverer, more powerfully than any other of 
human emotions, crush out undue self-love, and 
develop the truest elements of character. Chris- 
tianity, taking advantage of this fact, presents the 
perfect Model of completed duty, which every one 
ought to equal, in such form as to call forth, with 
most intense power, this feeling. "God so loved the 
world, that He gave His oidy-begotten /Son, that whoso- 

1 Jolm viii. 46. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 323 

ever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eter- 
nal life" l "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but 
that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitia- 
tion for our sins." 2 All the dreadful suffering of the 
innocent Jesus, in His life of opposition and calumny, 
His death of shame and torture, was but the unfold- 
ing of this love. " Greater love hath no man than this, 
that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are 
My friends." 3 Out of the conviction of this great 
love of Jesus, the incarnate God, love for man in 
his suffering, his sinful, condition, love for the un- 
lovely, the wrecked, springs the responsive affection 
of the Christian, — "Whom having not seen, ye love." ^ 
" We love Him, because He first loved us." 5 Then obli- 
gation to duty receives new power, because of affec- 
tion for One Who says, " If ye love Me, keep My 
commandments." 6 The desires for rational perfection 
of being are embodied in the ambition to imitate the 
Model. "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy 
likeness" 7 and " We shall be like Him, for we shall 
see Him as He is." 8 

( hristianity gives liberty for the movement of man 
toward the realization of the Model in his own life. 
He must, if he is to attain completeness of being, be 
freed from the guilt, bondage, and pollution, of evil- 
doing. Violation of law necessitates penalty; and 
in the case of a free agent this moans, — beyond tin 4 
mere necessary evolution of innate principles, — 
arraignment, sentence, positive; punishment. 9 Jesus 

i John iii. 16. 2 l John to. in. ■ John w. 13, n. 

• l Peter ■ l John to. 19. tin \i\\ LB 

■ Pa. wii. 15. i John iii. •_'. 

» Pp. L42-145, L61, 162, 201-203, 221, 260-265. 



324 THE GIST OF IT. 

Christ paid this penalty in man's stead, as it is writ- 
ten, " Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the 
sins of the world! " l " Who His Own self bare our sins, 
in His Own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, 
should live unto righteousness." 2 Evil habits and ten- 
dencies rivet fetters which man cannot break, but 
from whose bondage he must be free if he is to attain 
the supreme purpose of life-activity. " Whosoever 
committeth sin is the servant (slave) of sin" But "if 
the Son . . . shall make you free, ye shall be free 
indeed" z This means a change in the man's char- 
acter so great that it is likened to a birth. Christ 
said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again, he 
cannot see the kingdom of God." ' 4 The bursting of 
the bonds of evil habit, and waking the spirit to free 
and right activity, is a work possible only to Divine 
Agency, and makes the man a in Christ, a neiv crea- 
ture ." 5 As mud and slime defile the body, so do evil 
thoughts and practices pollute the spirit. This, too, 
is provided for in Christianity ; for " if we confess our 
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and 
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness ; " 6 and " the blood 
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" 7 

When, however, man is thus forgiven, freed, and 
cleansed, he must have power to continue in the life- 
movement toward the perfect imitation of the Model ; 
and Christ Himself has said, " Without Me ye can do 
nothing." 8 But He also said, " Ye shall receive power, 
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you;" 9 and the 

1 John i. 29. 2 1 Peter ii. 24. 3 John viii. 34, 36. 

4 John iii. 3. 5 2 Cor. v. 17. 6 1 j onn i. 9. 

7 1 John i. 7. 8 John xv. 5. 9 Acts i. S. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 325 

great apostle testifies, " I can do all things through 
Christ which strengthened me." l On the basis of the 
foregoing discussion, no one can rationally deny the 
possibility of new strength and vigor being given 
the spirit of man by the Creator ; and this is what 
is promised here, — that the Spirit of God will infuse 
power into the spirits of Christ's followers. Thus 
the man is prepared for life-action. He is now in 
full condition for the struggle toward the attainment 
of the true life aim. 

Life is a struggle ; and, even when man has thus 
started, danger and difficulty will constantly assail 
him. He must be continually comforted, cheered, 
and guided, in all his ways, or he will meet with dis- 
couragement and disaster. He is, therefore, promised 
the companionship of God, — not the mere visitation, 
but the actual companionship and intimate commun- 
ion of the Divine Being. " Behold, I stand at the 
door and knock : if any man hear My voice, and open 
the door, I to ill come in to him, and will sup ivith him, 
and he with Me." 2 " If a man love Me, he ivill keep 
My words : and My Father will love him, and We will 
come unto him, and make Our abode with him." 3 U I 
will pray the Father, and He shall give you another 
Comforter, that He may abide with you forever ; Even 
the Spirit of truth ; Whom the world cannot receive, 
because it seeth Rim not, neither knoweth Him ; but ye 
know Him : for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in 
you" * Lest man should fret and worry in times of 
trouble, Jesus Bays, "Peace I leave with you, My 

i Phil. iv. 13. 2 Rev. iii. 20. « John xiv. 23. 

4 John xiv. 15, 1(5. 



326 THE GIST OF IT. 

peace I give unto you : not as the tvorld giveth, give 1 
unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let 
it be afraid." 1 For, " I give unto them eternal life; 
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck 
them out of My hand. My Father, Which gave them 
Me, is greater than all ; and no man is able to pluck 
them out of My Father s hand." 2 

When man's nature is thus renewed, he is ready 
for activity, the help of the Divine Being is given 
him to aid and direct in his movements, then Christi- 
anity sets before him the supreme purpose for all his 
immortal endeavor. This purpose involves three 
elements. First, absolute redemption from sin, the 
removal of every trace of the working and effect of 
wrong-doing in the entire being. " For this is the 
ivill of God, even your sanctification" 3 " Ye shall be 
holy ; for I the Lord your God am holy."^ '-'•You 
. . . hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through 
death, to present you holy and unblameable and wire- 
proveable in His sight." 5 This complete deliverance 
from sin is to be not only of the individual; ulti- 
mately the principles of the gospel are to rule tri- 
umphant over the earth, all schisms and differences 
among men will disappear, and the redeemed will 
constitute the one harmonious race. " The earth shall 
be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord } as 
the waters cover the sea." 6 

The second element in this purpose is the building 
of perfect character, the attainment of completeness 
of being. The conception of character presented by 

i Johii xiv. 27. 2 John x. 28, 29. 3 1 Thess. iv. 3. 

* Lev. xix. 2. 5 Col. i. 21, 22. 6 Hab. ii. 14. 



TUE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 327 

Christianity is the grandest conceivable. " Let all 
bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil 
speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And 
be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one 
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven 
you." l " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
Which is in heaven is perfect" 2 The perfect and com- 
plete development of the entire being into the like- 
ness of God Himself, is the ultimate purpose of the 
Christian life. 

The third and final element is the realization of 
the kingdom of Christ. After the completion of the 
earthly life of the human race, when the subjection 
of Nature to man, and of man to Christ, has been 
fully accomplished, the dead will be raised, and all 
the redeemed from among men, with all other right- 
eous intelligences, are to be gathered into one people, 
to live throughout eternity under the direct govern- 
ment of Christ, and be guided by Him continually 
in the outworking of His purposes as He shall pro- 
gressively make them known. In its sweep this rule 
is to cover all the universe, and there will be ample 
scope for the full and best activity of all men through 
all coming ages. " When the Son of man shall come 
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then 
shall He sit upon the throne of His glory : And before 
linn shall be gathered all nations : and He shall sepa- 
them one from another, as a shtphe-rd divideth his 
sheep from the goats: And He shall set the sheep on 
His right hand, but the goats on (he lift. . . . And 
these shall go away into everlasting punishment : but the 
i Eph. iv. 31, 32. 2 Matt. v. 48. 



828 THE GIST OF IT. 

righteous into life eternal.''' 1 " And I saw the dead, 
small and great, stand before God ; . . . and the sea 
gave up the dead which were in it ; and death and hell 2 
delivered up the dead which were in them: and they 
were judged every man according to their works." 3 
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the 
first heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and 
there was no more sea. . . . And I heard a great voice 
out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is 
with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall 
be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and 
be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any 
m.ore pain : for the former things are passed away." 4 
" The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; 
and His servants shall serve Him : And they shall see 
His face; . . . and they shall reign for ever and ever" 5 
Few and simple principles are to guide man in his 
working toward this purpose. The basis of all is 
faith. " Whosoever believeth" 6 shall be saved. Ab- 
solute trust in the Lord Jesus is the bond of union 
with Him. The life is to be directed by Christ. Not 
merely is the individual to seek to determine his 
actions according to the teachings of Christ, but 
also the direct guidance of Christ is to be sought. 
Therefore, constant communion with Him is to be 
maintained, and so the whole activity guided and 
moulded by His immediate influence. From this 

1 Matt. xxv. 31, 32, 33, 46. 2 The unseen world, Hades. 

3 Rev. xx. 12, 13. 4 Rev. xx. 1, 3, 4. 

6 Rev. xxi. 3, 4, 5. 6 John iii. 16. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS. 329 

indwelling of the spirit of Christ will result a regu- 
lation of the life by the principle of self-sacrifice. 
Not only is self-will to be broken, so that the indi- 
vidual is ready to do and accept whatever the Saviour 
directs ; but the love of self will be overcome, and 
each made ready, as his Saviour, to give of himself 
for the benefit of others. " He that findeth his life 
shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life for My sake 
shall find it" 1 — expresses a profound philosophical 
truth. All progress in true power, which is the cul- 
mination of all endeavor and issues in right achieve- 
ment, is through the abnegation of self and the 
growth of unselfish principles of action. 

Such, then, is the solution offered by Christianity. 
Fitting in perfectly with all the laws of man's being, 
it gives employment to all his activities, affords 
exercise, so as fully to develop them, yet always 
presents increasing opportunity for their use, and 
enables man to attain the supreme end of his exist- 
ence. Rationally, scientifically, Christianity must, 
therefore, be accepted as the true solution of the life- 
problem, the Divinely given scheme. What dignity, 
what joy, it gives to life ! This world is not a prison- 
house, nor yet man's permanent home. Here the 
foundations for an endless character-building are to 
be laid. The world of Nature is to be mastered and 
used. Mankind are to be cared for and helped. 
White-robed angels hover lovingly about us, and the 
blessed Christ walks with us in close hand-clasp, 
chiding when we wander, comforting when we mourn, 
counselling, leading, when our path is dark, beckon- 

1 Matt. x. 39. 



330 THE GIST OF IT. 

ing ever to the fuller knowledge and better imitation 
of His Own matchless perfection. u the depth of 
the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! 
how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways 
past finding out ! For who hath known the mind of the 
Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath 
first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him 
again ? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, 
are all things : to Whom be glory for ever, Amen^ 1 

l Rom. xi. 33-36. 



APPENDIX. 



THE LOGIC OF THE THEISTIC ARGUMENT. 

This theme, more fully stated, is the logical nature, 
consistency, cogency, and correlation, of the theistic 
proofs. Here is where the advance step in theistic dis- 
cussion is to be made, — in the synthesis of all the phases 
of the argument. This involves, of course, the thorough 
investigation of each step in itself and in its relations to 
other proofs aud to the whole. To present such elaborate 
treatment would require a large volume. The purpose of 
this brief appendix is merely to indicate the lines along 
which such further study must proceed, and to show more 
clearly, perhaps, than can be done in popular discourse, 
the exact logical relations mutually sustained by the vari- 
ous elements of the argument. 

Logic is the science of the laws of thought. What is 
thought? the power? the process? the product? The last 
is useful for our purpose only as it reveals the second. 
In the second all knowledge of the first is obtained. 
Hence, logic is the science of those mental processes 
which are called thought. "What processes are these? 
The exercise of merely the discursive faculties? Blather, 
all the processes concerned in the acquisition and elabo- 
ration of knowledge. Psychology shows tlial these pro- 
cesses always conform to certain principles, — follow 

331 



332 TIIE GIST OF IT. 

specific lines. They will, evidently, be best understood 
when carried on under the best possible conditions. Logic 
is, therefore, the science of the normal activity of the man 
thinking. 

The problem is to show, first, the nature of this thought- 
activity ; and, secondly, that this activity, when normally 
exercised, naturally and inevitably develops the theistic 
argument. We are foolish enough to think, despite the 
assertion of Physicus, that the theistic argument is now 
without any logical standing whatever, — that this is a 
live problem. 

Nothing is needed, in the first part of the inquiry, be- 
yond a brief summaiy, and the emphasis of a few special 
points. Notice the axioms on which the activity proceeds. 

1. The principle of identity. In its positive form A = 
A. Every thing is what it is, and this may be affirmed 
of it. In its negative form A isn't not-A. livery thing is 
not what it is not, and this may be affirmed of it. 

2. The principle of disjunction. A certain subject, S, 
must find its predicate somewhere among p*p 2 . . ., the 
specific forms of P, which is a universal mark of M. If 
there be several of these, p : p 2 p 3 p 4 . . ., the predicate 
may be of any one of them, and we have the principle of 
contrariety. If there be but two, p*p 2 , the predicate must 
be of one, not the other, and so arises the principle of 
contradiction, or excluded middle. "Thus," — to quote 
from Lotze, Logic, p. 76, — " for the line S, which must 
have some direction (P), straight (P 1 ) and crooked (P 2 ) 
are contradictory predicates ; and so for man, whose na- 
ture it is to have sex, are male and female : for any other 
subjects, of which it was not yet established whether their 
concepts contained the universal P at all, these predicates 
would be only contrary ; for such subjects the division 
of their possible predicates will be always threefold, they 



APPENDIX. 333 

are either male, female, or sexless, either straight, crooked, 
or formless." 

3. The principle of sufficient reason, A -f~ B = C. " All 
continuous thought must be rationallj- connected. Infer 
nothing without a ground or reason." " In virtue of this, 
thought is constituted into a series of acts all inclissolu- 
bly connected ; each necessarily inferring the other." A 
difference must be noted here. The principles of identity 
and disjunction rest directly on the intuitions. Their 
validity is not for an instant questionable, and arises from 
the impossibility of conceiving their opposites in thought. 
The principle of sufficient reason — Lotze, Logic, p. 71 
— is "an assumption of mutual relatedness in thinkable 
matter, the truth of which is guaranteed by the concen- 
trated impression of all experience." The author contin- 
ues quaintly, " I wish not to be misunderstood in this 
last phrase. . . . I do not mean that it is a comparison 
of what we experience which first leads the mind to con- 
jecture such a principle ; the general tendency of the logi- 
cal spirit, to exhibit the co-existent as coherent, contains 
in itself the impulse, which, independently even of all 
experience, would lead to the assumption of a connection 
of reasons and consequences. But that this assumption 
is confirmed, that thought does come upon such identities 
or equivalences between different elements in the think- 
able matter which it does not make, but receives or finds, 
this is a fortunate fact, a fortunate trait in the organ- 
ization of the thinkable world, a trait which does really 
, but has not the same necessity for existing as the 
Principle of Identity. It is not impossible to conceive a 
world in winch every thing should be as incommensurable 
with every other thing as sweet is with triangular, and iu 
which therefore there would be no possibility of bo holding 
two different things together as to give ground for a third." 



384 THE GIST OF IT. 

The special postulate of logic is, — there is such a thing 
as truth, which can be known, and on which all minds 
acting in accordance with the laws of thought must agree. 
From this flows a second, — the right to bring out explicitly 
in language what is implicitly contained in thought. Two 
things are obvious : first, no knowledge is possible if any 
of these axioms and postulates be denied ; it is sublime 
folly to talk about any thing as " truth for one and not 
for another " : second, all men, everywhere, naturally and 
necessarily, though unconsciously, act upon these axioms 
and postulates. Yet their clear recognition is essential 
to avoid self-contradiction. 

Proceeding upon this basis, the thought-activity oper- 
ates as follows : — 

First is the simple observation of facts. This is not 
usually considered a part of logic ; but its claim to treat- 
ment is evident, when one remembers how vital a part it 
plays in the fabric of knowledge. Observation may be 
but partial ; important particulars may be overlooked ; 
incongruous facts may be combined ; or, facts and in- 
ferences from facts may be confused. In such cases, the 
basal concepts of thought are marred, and, of course, all 
the work of the higher powers is impaired. These facts, 
or percepts, are grouped, on the basis of underlying 
thought-relations, into bundles — the object and the class 
concepts, expressed in the term. These concepts, or 
terms, have mutual relations ; and the relation existing 
between any two of them may be expressed, forming a 
judgment, the proposition. The connection of two con- 
cepts may be by means of a third, to which they are both 
related. Their connection with this third and consequent 
relation to each other is expressed in a series of proposi- 
tions, the syllogism. Finally, a complex of propositions 
and syllogisms may be organized, on the basis of some 
unifying principle, into a system of thought. 



APPENDIX. 335 

For example, in studying self-consciousness a mass of 
distinct facts is revealed, — thinking, planning, craving, 
feeling, remembering, willing, incessant activity, and so 
on. The careful study of these percepts shows connec- 
tions which lead to their grouping as facts of knowing, 
feeling, willing. Interdependences appear and are noted, 
and presently arises the system of psychology. 

In all the process, the steps on which special emphasis 
must be laid are the first and last. The work of obser- 
vation is not easily made scientific. But its product 
determines the result of all higher activit} T . Says Dr. 
Ormond, u Tell me a man's fundamental concepts, and I 
will almost certainly construct his system of philosophy." 
God, Christ, man, are the basal concepts of theology. 
Settle them for a man, and you fix his religious belief. 
Yet, when the work of system-making is attempted, great 
care is necessary. When thinkers decry all metaphysics, 
and then, in the midst of a biological discussion, talk 
about spontaneous generation as a necessity of thought, 
they give neither sound science nor good metaphysics. 
In its entirety, logic takes cognizance of every step in 
the thought-activity, and of ever}' influence from feeling, 
ignorance, prejudice, or what not, and properly allows 
for them. When so conducted, its conclusions are irre- 
fragable. Language itself is but crystallized logic. 

The material of logic is knowledge. Here three points 
are to be considered: 1. The starting-point of knowl- 
edge. 2. The content of the knowledge given in self- 
consciousness. 3. The interpretation of the knowledge 
of the external world by the ke}* furnished in self- 
consciousness. 

Knowledge must, cvidentl}', start from self, as revealed 
in consciousness. The possibility of deception in the use 
of the Benscs is far greater than in the reading of con- 



336 THE GIST OF IT. 

sciousness. The facts of the inner life are indubitable, 
are nearest each one's being, and necessarily underlie and 
condition all other knowledges. It is true that the facts 
of the inner life are not consciously recognized as soon 
as those of the external world. The child knows that 
two straight sticks will not enclose a space, long before 
it discovers, in its mind, the intuition on which its judg- 
ment is based. Yet the intuition is first, and renders 
possible the perception of the fact. Here, then, must 
be the starting-point and the basis of certainty for all 
knowledge. 

Self-consciousness reveals knowledge of three distinct 
spheres of activity. 

First is a sphere of intelligent activity, comprising the 
voluntary action of intellect, feelings, and will : the in- 
tellect, in its fourfold operation, simple knowledge, — 
through sense, consciousness, and intuition, — memoiy, 
comparison, and construction ; the feelings, responding 
to every phase of knowledge, and forming the motor- 
power of action ; and the will, through the successive 
steps of choice, purpose, and endeavor, directing and 
exercising the whole power of the being in achievement. 
Besides this simple activity, the complex operation of 
intellect, feeling, and will, in the ethical and aesthetic 
natures, is likewise included in this sphere. 

Below this is another sphere of activity, arising from 
the bodily life. It comprehends all the involuntary and 
unconscious or non-self-conscious operations connected 
with the life of the body ; and, too, the distinctively intel- 
lectual processes of sensation, perception, and association, 
all of which are spontaneous and involuntary. 

When the core of self-consciousness is reached, a third 
form of activity is found. It cannot be positively de- 
scribed. It exists. It resists. It is a center of energy, 
the enennzino: center of the entire bein<>-. 



APPENDIX. 337 

Analogical reasoning is reasoning on the basis of re- 
semblances. The speculative analogy is that form in 
which, from resemblances of phenomena, we infer the 
character of unknown and inaccessible causes. By 
means of this speculative analogy, using the key given 
in self-consciousness, the phenomena of the external 
world are interpreted. 

In interpreting single phenomena I find, first, all about 
me, beings formed like myself, exhibiting phenomena 
exactly like those which, in myself, I know to be the 
outworkings of intelligent personality. Hence, I ascribe 
to them a personality such as my own ; and, though I 
cannot penetrate their bodily forms, yet ' k the concen- 
trated impression of all experience," *since the race 
began, guarantees the validity of my conclusion. 

Plants and animals are all around me ; and these, 
while not manifesting personality, do exhibit phenomena 
such as in myself accompany the bodily life. So I 
ascribe to them the possession of a life principle ; and 
again ''the concentrated impression of all experience'' 
guarantees the truth of my conclusion. 

The clod, the stone, the molecules of iron and hydro- 
gen, manifest neither personality nor life. They exist. 
They resist. Hence I term them centers of energy ; and 
here, too, the validity of my inference is guaranteed by 
" the concentrated impression of all experience." Here 
the limit of investigation of single phenomena is reached. 

Phenomena, however, are not, as we perceive them, 
mutually independent, but mutually related. Hence, the 
totality of phenomena demands interpretation; and in 
this interpretation the interpreting being musl itself be 
considered a link in the chain of phenomena, and itself, 
therefore, requires explanation. 

I am. There was a time when I was not. Whence 



338 THE GIST OF IT. 

came I? My race, the earth on which we dwell, have 
not been always existent. Change is everywhere evi- 
dent. Yet, since something is, something must always 
have been. The self-generation of something out of 
nothing is an inconceivability, truly unthinkable. There 
must, therefore, be some eternal being as the ultimate 
ground and cause of changing phenomena. This eternal 
being must be self-existent : if not, it could not be 
eternal, for it would derive its being from some other 
independent being. It must, likewise, be self-active. 
Its effects show it possessed of power. But that power, 
residing in the eternal, self-existent being, could not be 
dependent on external agency for its operation. It must 
be self -exercised. The mere fact, therefore, of present 
being, necessitates the existence of some eternal, self- 
existent, self-active being. 

Order prevails throughout present being. I am a unit. 
But my unity is a unified complex of varied sets of agen- 
cies. So the totality of phenomena is a wonderful com- 
plex of varied agencies, but is organized into one whole. 
The reign of law is universal. Order and unity in 
dependent being necessitate unity in the independent 
being, and raise a presumption for intelligence in that 
being. 

Order implies purpose. Is there purpose evident in 
phenomenal existence? In the inorganic world, order 
and fixed law are for the sake of adjustment and correla- 
tion. The natural forces and elements operate with 
mathematical precision and certainty. When the condi- 
tions are supplied, they must operate, and the form of 
their activity is always the same. Yet all effects actually 
produced result from the combination of various forces. 
The adjustment may be varied : if so, the effect is 
changed. Inexorable necessity, infinite power of mutual 



APPENDIX.- 339 

adjustment, characterize all inorganic being. The boiler 
will surely burst when the pressure of steam within ex- 
ceeds the metal's power of resistance. It cannot burst 
before. The slightest influence will vary the adjustment 
of opposing forces, and prevent or cause wreck. Here, 
then, is material for the work of intelligent, directive 
agency. 

Superimposed upon this inorganic being is the myste- 
rious, architectonic, influence of life. Vital force or not, 
something takes these forces and elements, weaves them 
into a specific organic whole, builds the organism to 
maturity, removes waste from it, repairs injury, preserves 
vigor, and reproduces its kind. Here, then, is a worker 
to use the material. This looks curiously like a plan. 

In all life, plant and animal, three facts successively 
appear: 1. Adaptation, — of organ to function, organ 
to organ, organism to environment. 2. Co-ordination, — 
of forces and functions, of organs and environment, of 
species — lower subordinated to higher, all culminating 
ID the body of man. 3. Development, — of the individ- 
ual, of the species, of the Life-sphere as a whole. 

In human life two facts are evident: 1. Co-ordination, 
— some Power shapes the life of each and all. " There's 
a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we 
will." 2. Development, — individuals, nations, progres- 
sively unfold, and (it m as pints in the evolution of souk; 
comprehensive plan. Religion from the Jew; philosophy, 
culture, from the Greek; law and government from the 
Roman; Liberty and chivalry from the Teuton, — form 

the web of modern life. Each was developed in lime, 
. and circumstances, fixed, it seemed, by man's free 
activity; yet all were guided in unfolding for one end. 

The human body is pre-eminently the instrument of 
intelligence. The bony skeleton for framework. Light, 



340 THE GIST OF IT. 

graceful, strong ; the muscles, instruments of power ; the 
nerves, for communication and control ; the skins and 
membranes, for protection ; the circulatory, respiratory, 
digestive, systems, to build and preserve. The human 
spirit is a unit, with complex activities : the intellect, to 
secure and elaborate knowledge ; the emotions, to make 
that knowledge ends of action ; the will, to respond to 
the impulse of feeling, and, on the basis of sound reason 
and right, — as determined by the intellect in judgment 
and conscience, — to let loose the powers of the whole 
being, and direct them in achievement. Here is wonder- 
ful unity in marvellous complexity : part and power of 
most diverse kind united in perfect mutual adaptation 
and correlation, unified throughout by the will — the real 
expression of personality and the type of causal power. 

The human spirit enunciates the ideas of oughtness and 
Tightness. Ultimate ethical atoms, they are propounded 
as absolute and universal in their application to intelli- 
gences. They necessarily imply a supreme authority and 
a perfect model of conduct. Consciousness enunciates 
likewise the idea of the good, equally authoritative, equally 
unresolvable. Duty must be done, whatever result. Yet 
the consideration of results is inevitable, and the desire 
for happiness irrepressible. In the life of virtue both 
ends are secured. Doing the right because it ought to be 
done brings with it, through some correlation not of man's 
devising, the perfection and pleasure of being. 

The spirit of man finds the highest exercise of its com- 
plex activity — intellect, emotions, will, — all combined in 
religion. Man universally worships. The noblest form 
of religion is Christianity, which, therefore, though itself 
presupposing theism, becomes an important factor in 
theistic argumentation. 

Can teleological proof go farther? The inference is 



APPENDIX. 341 

unavoidable to an Intelligence, a Moral Personality, the 
Ultimate Ground and Cause, the Support aud Ruler, of 
all dependent being. 

But is this being, thus supreme, only an exaggerated 
man ? If so, gross anthropomorphism marks and mars the 
concept. By necessary sequence, the human spirit adds 
to this Being the attribute, derived from its own intuition, 
of infinity ; and we stand in the presence of God. 

This, says the objector, is an illegitimate procedure. 
Nothing can ever be predicated of the Infinite, for all 
predication is of necessity a limitation. But the one in- 
dependent Being must be infinite, or there is no infinite. 
The independent exists, it persists, it is in productive re- 
lation to the dependent. All this is true, even if it be 
infinite. Obviously, then, predication is not essentially 
limitation. Hence, non-limiting attributes may be predi- 
cated of the Infinite. Material body limits. This can- 
not be affirmed of the Infinite. Does intelligence limit its 
possessor? Are will power, moral perfections, essen- 
tially limited and limiting? Human intelligence, weaving 
its mazes of thought, finds, in all directions, barriers it 
cannot pass, yet against which it beats in vain battle, 
conscious of vast fields of knowledge just beyond, and 
conscious of power to explore those regions, were its re- 
strictions once removed. This is typical. The attributes, 
therefore, of moral personality, may be affirmed of the 
Infinite. 

The argument is thus, throughout, analogical. Phenom- 
enal being is dependent. Some independent cause must 
underlie it. This is the (Etiological argument. All the 
after-process is the characterization of that cause. The 
cosmological argumenl raises a presumption for intelli- 
gence in that cause. This is proven by the teleologi ■•■! 
iment : first, in the Bphere of objective being, — m v ,.i- 



342 TUE GIST OF IT. 

ture and humanity ; second, in the sphere of subjective 
being, — in the complex unity of the being of man, in his 
ethical and religious activity. The ontological argument 
then purifies and completes the concept by adding the 
idea of infinity. In this process phenomena are to be 
most carefully observed and classified. The ke}* to their 
interpretation must come from self-consciousness. Every 
phase of the argument starts from self-consciousness, and 
finds therein its own correlative. The unified synthesis 
of man is the type of the unified synthesis of God. Grop- 
ing through his own physical envelopment, man touches 
and interprets the unfolding world, — the garment of God. 

The materialist either ignores the facts of self-conscious- 
ness, or tries to explain them in terms of matter. In 
either case his process is a vorrepov irpoTepov, and he throws 
away the only key to the problem. 

The pantheist denies the separate personality of man 
or of God, or severs the elements of personality and 
ascribes but some of them to the Deity. 

The agnostic daily belies his own professions by his im- 
plicit trust in the same facts of self-consciousness, whose 
inevitable logic he persistently contravenes. 

I believe in God, — in the living, personal God. I be- 
lieve that His creation is one perfect whole : that in man 
His matchless nature is truly, though faintly, typified ; 
that in the sphere of objective being the same divine Na- 
ture reveals itself ; and that, when freed from the domina- 
tion of passion, prejudice, and superstition, suffered to 
comport itself in normal activity, the human spirit natu- 
rally, necessarily, threads its way through the complex of 
life and being till it stands and communes, face to face, 
with the most real, the most concrete, of all beings, — the 
theist's, the Christian's, God. 



INDEX. 



Abercrombie, Dr., 211. 

Absorption, power of, 71. 

Achievement, the aim of life, de- 
fined, 291. 

Adjustment, principle of, in Na- 
ture, defined, illustrated, 74, 75. 

^Esthetic nature, reason for un- 
developed treatment, 30; defi- 
nition, 40; cultivation of, 240. 

Affections, defined, 22. 

Africa, exploration of, 61. 

African, indifference to time, 59. 

Agnosticism, (55. 

Agreement of materialism (mat- 
ter or force) and pantheism in 
their effect on the nature and 
life of man, 144. 

Air, couiposition, this unvarying, 
78. 

Alexander, Dr. Archibald, quot- 
ed, 35. 

Alexander, Dr. J. Addison, 212. 

Allotropy, defined, illustrated, 
69. 

America, present state of, 51, 244; 
growth of civilization in, 61. 

American expectancy tables, 1G7. 

Ammonia, composition of, 68. 

Amusement providers, 294. 

Anastasis, 205. 

Anaxagoras, 64. 

Anaximenes, 101. 

Ancestor worship, 228. 

Anchj losis, 199. 

Ancient Oriental civilizations, 
despotism of, 60; ideas of, 84. 

AngelO, .Michael, 64j sonnet of, 

221); artist, 253. 
Anglo-Saxons, belief In future 

life, 191. 

Animal life, close connection 

with plant life, 82; organization 
of, s -; ; possibilities, of, 108 
ilyslSi p. .wii-j. 



Animals, abuse of, 258; duties 

toward, 259, 260. 
Animalism, tendency to, 250. 
Annihilation, rebellion of spirit 

against, 213. 
Anthropomorphism, necessity 

and limits of, 160, 341. 
Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, 32. 
Appetencies, 19. 
Appetites, defined, 21. 
Arbrouseille, 205. 
Argyll, Duke of: Unity of Nature, 

quoted, 53, 54, 106, 124, 125-127; 

Reign of Law, quoted, 67. 
Aristotle, 64. 

Arnold, Benedict, 170, 299. 
Arnold, Matthew: St. Paul and 

Protestantism, 317. 
Arsenic, preferences in combina- 
tion, 70; poison, 153. 
Articulates, place in scale of life, 

82. 
Astronomy, a thought-system, 16. 
Atom, 101-108; of protoplasm, 117. 
Aurora, beauty of, 42. 
Aztecs, sense of sin, 162. 

Babylonia, 162. 

Babylonians, 60. 

Bain, Professor Alex. A., 123. 

Balfour, E. H.: Class Book in 
Botany, 78. 

Bartholomew's, massacre of St.. 
188. 

Beauty, defined and discussed, 
40- -1 \ : an end in creation, illus- 
trated, 155. 

Beautiful, the, defined, 40. 
Beaver, adaptations of the, 150. 
Beethoven, 64. 
Biogenesis, 77, 1 12, 1 13. 
Bismarck, 120. 
Bonhenr, Rosa, 172. 
Boscovitch, in:;, [22, 124. 

843 



344 



INDEX. 



Bowen: Modern Philosophy, 34; 

Metaphysics and Ethics, 199. 
Boxing, conditions of successful, 

236. 
Booth, John Wilkes, 170. 
Brass-horn factory, 152. 
Bridginan, Laura, 210. 
Brotherhood of man, defined, 88; 

influence of idea, 89. 
Browning, Mrs. E. B.: Isohel's 

Child, 168, 169 ; rank, 172. 
Brummel, Beau, 299. 
Bryant, W. C: Iliad, 166; 

Thanatopsis, 189; Mystery of 

Death, 189. 
Burnett, Mrs. F. H., 172. 
Barns, 170, 221, 315. 
Burr, Aaron, 170. 
Burritt, Elihn, 171. 
Business of life, 232. 
Butler, Gen. B. F., 306. 

Cfesar, Julius, 170, 209. 

Capitalist, dependence on em- 
ployees, 244, 246. 

Carbon, example of transmuta- 
tion, 126. 

Carbonic-acid gas, 79. 

Carpenter, W. B.: Physiology, 80; 
Mental Physiology, 211. 

Catalysis, defined, illustrated, 69. 

Causal judgment, characteristics, 
94-97. 

Cause, discussion, tests of, 97, 98; 
a and the cause distinguished, 
199. 

Chaldeans, 60. 

Chalmers, Thomas: Natural The- 
ology, 215. 

Character-building, importance 
of, 282; elements in, 278 (analy- 
sis, p. sxx.); psychology in, 304; 
character, resultant of ele- 
ments, crystallization of, 278. 

Charles I. of England, 171; IX., 
of France, 188. 

Chemism, 69, 70, 125, 127. 

Chemistry, a thought-system, 16. 

Chinese, murder of female chil- 
dren, 35. 

Choice, defined, present in all 
will action, 24; freedom of, 36. 

Chronology, 56. 

Christianity, 58; present activity, 
66; Sekese on, 205 (analysis, 
pp. xxvii., xxviii.); condition of 
world at advent of, 85. 



Cicero, 209. 

Citizen, of the universe, 53; du- 
ties of, 248. 

Clerk-Maxwell, Professor, quot- 
ed, 105. 

Cohesion, 72. 

Coleridge: Ancient Mariner, 259, 
260. 

Colfax, Schuyler, death of, 188. 

Coligny, Admiral, death of, 188. 

Columbus, Christopher, 60. 

Comet hypothesis of drift, 57. 

Commerce, influence of, 88. 

Communism, 65, 246. 

Completeness of being, described, 
50; defined, 291. 

Concentration, a secret of suc- 
cess, 241. 

Conciliency of proof, 146. 

Conscience, definition and dis- 
cussion, 27-3(5 (analysis, p. xix.); 
force of, against materialism, 
120, 144; against pantheism, 
142, 144; for theism, 160; in 
sense of obligation, 141 ; in re- 
lation to immortality, 215. 

Consciousness, definition and dis- 
cussion, 6; unity of, indissolu- 
hle, 121, 196; reveals person- 
ality, 135. 

Constantinople, 225. 

Constructive power, fact of a, 16; 
rational working of, "basis of 
sciences, 17. 

Cosmopolitanism, present spirit 
of, 88. 

Cotton-gin, a means of power, 
61. 

Cow per, 260. 

Creation, scheme of, summarized, 
163. 

Creative power, involves annihi- 
lating power, 107. 

Crusades, influence of, 87. 

Culture, obligation to, 233. 

Dawson: Facts and Fancies in 
Modern Science, 117. 

Dead line, the, 181. 

Death, defined, 76, 195; discussed, 
185-189 (analvsis, xxvi.); stream 
of, 187; mystery of, 189. 

Demagogue, wreck of the, 302. 

Democritus, 102. 

Demosthenes, 170. 

Design, progressive, 153. 

Desires, defined, 22. 



INDEX. 



345 



Dewdrop, laws in formation of, 
129. 

Development, law of, by exer- 
cise, 222; opportunities in, 282. 

Devotion, to God, crowning act 
of, 277. 

Donnelly, Ignatius: Ragnarok, or 
the Age of Fire and Gravel, 57. 

Dreams, suggestions of, on rela- 
tion of spirit and body, 204. 

Dresser, C: Unity in Variety, 78. 

Drift, 57. 

Druids, sense of sin, 162. 

Duality of created existence, 6, 
194. 

Duty, idea of, ultimate, 160; 
arises from relation, 226 (analy- 
sis, p. xxviii.). 

Duties, to God, germ-th ought of, 
267 (and foot-note). 

Earth, growth of strata, 57; part 

• of mechanism of universe, 92. 

Ecclesiastes, 189. 

Education, influence of, 88; pro- 
cesses of, 216; false ideas of, 
237 ; true theory of, 238. 

Egypt, inscriptions of, 162; an- 
cient, belief in future life. 191. 

Elasticity, 72. 

Electricity, electroplating, -typ- 
ing, 72. 

Elements of matter, number, 67, 
109; properties, combining 
weights, 68, 109; preferences in 
combination, 70; movements 
necessary and predictable, 70; 
properties irreconcilable, 109. 

Eliot, George, 172. 

Eliot, John, Indian missionary, 
197. 

Emotion, place in order of spirit- 
activities, in, 20, 23: not basis 
of knowledge, 19; elements of, 
19; defined, 23; relation to fu- 
ture life, 213; relation to effi- 
ciency of action, 273, 301; how 
cultivated, 273; effect on, ol 
study of Cod, 'J74. 

English, eff eel <>f location on, 225. 

Eternity, of universe, 99; and 
self-existence iuseparahl 

Ether, 62, 71. 103. 104, 107, 108. 

Evolution, distinction of materi- 
alistic and theistic, NO; mate- 
rialistic, stated and discussed, 
111-121 (analysis, p, xxiii.); fun- 



damental weakness of, 121; as 

related to design, 156. 
Exclusiveness of ancient peoples, 

88. 
Exertion, power of, culmination 

of spirit-activity, 26. 

Failure, 180. 

Fame, defined, 298 (analysis, p. 
xxxi.). 

Faraday, 124. 

Farrar, Canon, 295. 

Fetichism, 58, 276. 

Feudalism, 64. 

Fiske, Professor John: The 
Destinv of Man, 207. 

Flint: Tlieism, 101, 105, 145; 
Anti-Theistic Theories, 141. 

Forces, physical, discussed, 70- 
73; under necessarv law, 70, 
73, 122; adjustment of, 73, 114, 
130; as Fir~t Cause, 122 (analy- 
sis, p. xxiv.); conservation and 
correlation of, 122-127; pen- 
tarchy of, 125-127; function in 
universe of, permanency and 
adjustment of, 130; rational 
work of, how explained, 134: 
persistence of, 193. 

Foster : Essay on Time, 244. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 63. 

Fre'mont, Gen. J. C, non-recog- 
nition of, 300. 

Future life, duration of, 223. 

Gage, Gen., ambition of, 302. 

Galileo, 191. 

Garfield, Gen. James A., personal 
identitv of, 120; moral power 
of, 307." 

Gauls, invasion of, 60. 

Genius, distinguished from tal- 
ent, 158, 159. 

Gcolog3 T , evidence of regarding 
life, 113. 

Gillett: God in Human 
Thought, 205. 

Gladstone, 120. 

God, relation to universe, 134, 
Hi:;, 257: wisdom, goodness, jus- 
tice, of, in proofs of future life, 
219-221: property-right in man, 
260; fatherhood of, 261-266 

(analysis, p. xxix.); duties to- 
ward, paramount, 266; geiTO- 
thoughl of, 267; knowledge of. 

269; Key to all knowledge. e\- 



346 



INDEX. 



istence of, fundamental postu- 
late, 272. 

Goldsmith, dullness of, 234. 

Grant, Gen. U. S., 120, 300, 301. 

Gravitation, work of, 54; law of, 
72, 128; illustration of adjust- 
ment, 74, 123, 127, 128. 

Greece, 60; rule, 60; federation 
of, 64; ideas of, 84; individ- 
uality in, 00; religious sense of 
sin in, 163; language, 239. 

Gregory : Logic, 15 ; Christian 
Ethics, 27, 32, 229, 268. 

Ground and cause distinguished, 
134. 

Greeley, Horace, 235. 

Guiteau, 170. 

Habeas corpus, 91. 

Habit, danger and value of, 281. 

Hamilton, Sir William, 211, 214, 
294. 

Hand, wonders of, 46. 

Happiness, definition and discus- 
sion, 292 (analysis, p. xxxi.); 
law of, 294. 

Harris: Philosophical Basis of 
Theism, 40. 

Hawthorne: Scarlet Letter, 16. 

Heat, 71, 126, 127. 

Heavenly bodies, orbits of, 148; 
movements of, 149. 

Henry, Professor Joseph, 296. 

Heraclitus, 101. 

Herschel, Sir John, 105; Out- 
lines of Astronomy, 128. 

His Majesty, Myself, 235. 

Hindoo literature, 64. 

Hodge, Dr. A. A., quoted, 76. 

Home, duties in the, 248. 

Howard, John, 229. 

Human body, delicate structure, 
45 (analysis, p. xx.); composi- 
tion, 80; culmination of organi- 
zation of Nature, 83, 92 ; evidence 
of adjustment, 114; instrument 
of thought, 116; design in, 149, 
150; instrument of spirit, 228; 
a mechanism, 291. 

Human existence, continuous, 283. 

Human life, rleetness of, 165; pos- 
sibilities of, 167 (analysis, p. 
xxvi.); self the determining fac- 
tor in, 171; expectancy of, 167; 
tests of, 174; great test of, 178; 
wreck of, if no future life, 200; 
dignity of, if future, 218. 



Hunger, illustrating work of 

emotion, 20. 
Hypotheses of origin of universe, 

101. 

Ice-sheet hypothesis, 57. 

Ideal man, pictured in himself, 
50; as related to Nature, 92; as 
related to God, 269. 

Ignorance, egotism of, 152. 

Iliad, 166. 

Imagination, 13, 109, 123. 

Immanency of God, 134, 257. 

Immortality, assumptions of ma- 
terialism regarding, 191 (analy- 
sis, p. xxvi.). 

Indestructibility of matter, de- 
fined, 107; argument from, for 
immortality, 196, 210. 

Individual duties, germ-thought 
of, 227 (analysis, p. xxviii.). 

Individuality, lack of in ancient 
world, 89; development of in 
modern times, 91. 

Inertia, 124. 

Infinite regressus of universes, 
99. 

Infusoria, 82. 

Ingelow, Jean, 172. 

Inner law, rule and model of ac- 
tion, 36. 

Instinct, 21. 

Intuition, defined, 8; classified, 
11, 12. 

Ishmaelite, 245. 

Isomerism, defined and illustrat- 
ed, 69. 

Jackson, Stonewall, 188. 

Janet: Final Causes, 153. 

Jasper, Rev. John, 191. 

Jesuits, 176. 

Jesus, moral teachings of, 32; per- 
fect model of character, 321. 

Jews, republicanism of, 64; ideas 
of, 85; individuality among, 90; 
idea of holiness, how developed, 
217. 

Judas Iscariot, 170, 299. 

Judgment, future, theism in re- 
gard to, 221; Christianity in 
regard to, 327. 

Justice, inner standard of, 35. 

Kant, Immanuel, view of the 

moral law, 33, 34. 
Kepler, 149. 



INDEX. 



347 



Kinnard, James, 190. 

Knowing-power, definition and 
phases, 9; trustworthiness of 
simple processes, 12. 

Knowledge, as affecting charac- 
ter, 269; of God, what atid how, 
270; is apprehension of the truth 
of God, 272. 

Landseer, 64. 

Language, 58, 335. 

La Place, 149. 

Law, distinctions of term, 67. 

Laws, of matter, necessary and 
fixed, 67; immutable, inexor- 
able, so basis of organization of 
universe and mechanical indus- 
try, 73; adjustment of, 74. 

Levering, overstrain of, at Har- 
vard, 235. 

Life-force, function of, 49; defined, 
76, 112, 154 ; power of adaptation, 
154; identity in, 192. 

Life-problem, defined, 3, 284. 

Life-purpose, 26. 

Light, 5:i, 71, 125-127. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 170, 171. 

Lind, Jenny, 172. 

Literature, 58. 

Liszt, 41. 

Locomotive, product of construc- 
tive power, 16; example of ad- 
justment, 74. 

Louie, psychological basis of, 15. 

Lotze, 332, 333. 

\ uther, Martin, 170, 299. 

Magnet, 119. 

Man, localized, movements re- 
corded, 64 ; control over Nature, 
83 (see Nature) ; pantheism 
makes culmination of universe, 
140; effect on, of materialism 
(matter or force) and panthe- 
ism, 144; spirit nature, a proof 
of design, 157; belief of, in fu- 
ture life, 191, 200; is culmina- 
tion of Nature, 83, 92, 201, 20fi; 

mental processes of early, 205, 

20fi distinctive charact: nstic, 

rationality, 232, 320. 
Manufacturer, obligation of, to 

employee, 246. 
Mary, Bloody, 172. 

Materialism, defined, 101; ethics 
of, 20] (analysis, p. xxvii ). 



Matter, eternity of, 102, 107; self- 
existence of, 108, 111; unity of, 
109, 110; properties of, 119, 194, 
210; properties unchanged, 113; 
elements of (see Elements). 

McCosh, James L., quoted, 124; 
Emotions, 19, 40, 43; Typical 
Forms and Special Ends in Cre- 
ation, 78. 

Means of power, 64. 

Mechanical, forces, 72; motion, 
126, 127. 

Medicis, Catherine de, 172. 

Mendelssohn, (54. 

Mezzofanti, Cardinal, 212. 

Middle Ages, characterized, 86. 

Milton: Paradise Lost, 97. 

Mind, not effect of matter or life, 
147; -force, 128. 

Missions', 88. 

Mithridates VL, 212. 

Modern civilization character- 
ized, 87. 

Mohammed, hegira of, 60. 

Mohammedanism, sensuality of, 
58. 

Molecule, 103; manufactured, 105; 
of protoplasm, 117. 

Mollusks, 82. 

Moltke, Von, 301. 

Monopolies, 247. 

Moody, D. L., 299. 

Moral ideal, 213, 242; law, 31, 
302, 305, 309; power, 305 et seq 
(analysis, p. xxxi.). 

Moscow, 212. 

Mozart, 64, 97. 

Napoleon I., 170; memory of, 212; 
mistake of, 242. 

Nature, growth of study of, 61 ; 
man's control of, how possible, 
62, 83; system of, 92, 151 ; variety 
in, 155; a means of power, 20i>; 
man's relation to, 249 (analysis, 
p. xxix.); instrument of thought, 
253; co-ordination of uses of, 
256; beauty of, developed by 
man, 258. 

Nebular hypothesis, 58, 113, 147. 

Sity and certainty distin- 
guished, 75. 
Nero, 170. 

Nen <>u* system, 47; action not 

spirit-action, is. 
New Testament, revised, 02. 



348 



INDEX. 



Newton, Sir Isaac, 140; mental 
grasp of, 213; unpromising child- 
hood of, 234. 

Niagara, 40, 43. 

Nightingale, Florence, 172, 229. 

Nihilism, 65. 

Nile, pottery in valley of, 98. 

Nilsson, Christine, 172. 

Nitric acid, composition of, 68. 

Nitrous anhydride, composition 
of, 68. 

Nummulites, 82. 

Ohedience, sweep of, 275; charac- 
teristics of, 276. 
Obligation, basis of, 36. 
(Edipus, 214. 
Oregon, 300. 
Ormond, Dr. A. T., 36, 159, 335. 

Pantheism, 129; denned, 131 ; truth 
in, 133; concept of personality 
unthinkable, 135 (analysis,, p. 
xxiv.). 

Parcimony of causes, law of, 108. 

Parrhasius, (34. 

Pascal, 33. 

Past, value of, 66. 

Perfect, norm of the, in artistic 
construction, 17; in the aesthetic 
nature, 40. 

Persians, 60; belief in a future 
life, 191. 

Personal identity, 121, 194; rights, 
91. 

Personality, indissoluble, 135-139; 
human, only type of the super- 
natural, 135. 

Pessimism, defined, 87 (foot- 
note) ; the result of materialism 
and pantheism, 145; views of 
life, 179. 

Phidias, 64. 

Philosophy of history, basis of, 84. 

Physics, psycho-, 207. 

Phvsicus: referred to, 194; 
Theism, 213. 

Picton, J. Allanson: The Mys- 
tery of Matter, 205. 

Picturesque, the, defined, 42. 

Plant life 78, (analysis, p. xxi.); sta- 
tionary, 81; digestion of, 79, 151. 

Plato, 64, 90, 170, 207. 

Pleasure, law of, 293. 

Political economy, 246. 

Power, of spirit, defined, 8; as su- 
preme end, defined, 302 (analy- 



sis, p. xxxi.); law of, 307; all 

forms right, 309. 
Praxiteles, 64. 

Prayer, basis and forms, 276. 
Prejudice, 232. 
Presbyterian Review, 76. 
Pretty, the, defined, 42. 
Printing-press, means of power, 

61; Scott Railroad, 63; instru- 
ment of thought, 254. 
Probabilities, doctrine of, 117. 
Property, origin of right of, 247. 
Protestantism, individualizing 

tendency of, 91. 
Protoplasm, 112; composition of, 

117. 
Psychology, physiological, 207; 

need for, 237. 
Public opinion, right treatment 

of, 299. 
Punishment, 323 (and references). 

Radiates, 82. 

Railroad, product of constructive 
power, 18; means of power, 61. 

Rational sentiments, definition 
and discussion, 22 (analysis, p. 
xix.). 

Reconstruction of spirit, need for, 
tests of scheme for, 285. 

Reflection, 71. 

Reformation, influence of, 87; ba- 
sis, 231. 

Refraction, 71. 

Religion, broadening influence of, 
88. 

Rembrandt, 64. 

Resistance, 72. 

Responsibility, conditions of, 38. 

Resurrection, the, theism in re- 
gard to, 224; Christianity in 
regard to, 327. 

Revere, Mass., accident at, 75. 

Revival of letters, influence of, 
87. 

Reymond, Du Bois, 121. 

Ridpath: Life of Garfield, 307. 

Right, an ultimate idea, 160. 

Rome, 60; rule, 60; literature, 64; 
ideas, 85; individuality among, 
90. 

Revelation, possibility of, 320. 

Sabbath, the, 277. 
Saint Helena, 242. 
Sanscrit, hymns, 162; language, 
239. 



INDEX. 



349 



Scarlet Letter, The, a thought- 
system, 16. 

Sciences, thought-systems, hased 
on constructive power, 17; study 
of relations, 225; growth of, 249; 
natural, value of, 254. 

Scientists, materialistic, 65; 
Christian, 66. 

Scripture references (see end of 
Index). 

Seasons, 204. 

Self-control, necessity of, 240. 

Sekese, words of, 205 (foot-note). 

Seneca, 32. 

Sensation, defined, 20. 

Sensational literature, effect of 
reading, 240. 

Shakspere, Hamlet, 16; Macbeth, 
159. 

Signal service, 95. 

Sin, and pantheism, 142; and the- 
ism, 161; and a future life, 203. 

Slavery, cause of extinction of, 
88. 

Social duties, extension of indi- 
vidual, 245 (analysis, p. xxix.). 

Socialism, 65. 

Society, revenge of, on recluse 
and stingy, 245. 

Socrates, 32, 64. 

Solidarity of race, 88. 

Solomon, 44. 

Sophists, 32. 

Sorley, W. B.: Ethics of Natu- 
ralism, 92. 

Soul-power, defined, 305. 

Sound, 70. 

Spartans, state control, 90. 

Specialization, necessity, re- 
wards, 91. 

Species, transmutation of, 77; 
number of, 117, 118 (foot-note). 

Spectrum analysis, 109. 

Spencer, Herbert, 118 (foot-note), 
124. 

Sphere of human action, 92. 

Sphinx, the, 284. 

Spinal meningitis, case, of, 198. 

Spirit, self-activity, freedom, <S; 
unity, 9, 195; activity summar- 
ized, 44; action vs. uerve-action, 
47; wreck of. 51; activity, con- 
cretely manifested, 68; under 

freedom, 119; (iod, a, 163; a 

substance, 194, 210; relation to 
body distinct, controlling, 208; 
properties, 119, 194, 211; activ- 



ity, independent of condition of 

body, 199; ceaselessly active, 

211; described, 291. 
Spiritualism, 318. 
Standards of reason, 12. 
State, supreme idea in ancient 

world, 89. 
Steam-boiler, illustrating fixity of 

laws of Nature, 73, 339. 
Stephens, Alexander H., 197. 
Stewart and Tait: The Unseen 

Universe, 124, 193. 
Stewart, A. T., 231. 
Stoics, 32. 
Styx River, 228. 
Sublime, the, defined, 42. 
Substance, distinction of spirit 

and matter as, 194, 211. 
Success, false, 182; true, 184. 
Suffrage, universal, 91. 
Suicide, treatment of, by Greeks, 

228. 
Sullivan, 303. 
Supreme purpose, need for, 287- 

289; tests of, 290, 291 (analysis, 

p. xxxi ). 
Suspension bridge, illustrating 

adjustment of laws of Nature, 

74. 
Swoons, suggestions of, 204. 

Taste, characteristics of best, 240. 

Telegraph, means of power, 62, 
72; railroad inductive, duplex, 
63; instrument of thought, 254. 

Telephone, product of construc- 
tive power, 18; means of power, 
62, 72; instrument of thought, 
253. 

Tennyson: In Memoriam, 201; 
The Higher Pantheism, 271. 

Testing-machine, 287, 303. 

Tests, of human life, 174 ; the 
great life, 178. 

Teutons, literature, 64; ideas, 86; 
individual liberty, 90. 

Thales, 61, 101. 

TlHd.es, 2S4 

Theism, defined, 145 (analysis, p. 
! xxv.). 

Thirlmore, reason of wreck of, 235. 

Thomson, Sir William, 103, 104. 

Thought, undercurrent of, 211 j 
processes of, valid in study of 
God, 271. 

Timber, In relation to civiliza- 
tion, 80. 



350 



INDEX. 



Time, content of, 56, 92 (analysis, 
p. xxi.) ; geologic, 50; a means of 
power, 243. 

Titian, 64. 

True, norm of, basis of scientific 
construction, 17. 

Truth, general distinguished from 
necessary and universal, 196; 
vital to individual, 231; essen- 
tial in society, 247. 

Tyndall, Professor John, 110. 

Universe, a thought-system, 9, 
67, 100, 147, 151, 291 , 319; a mech- 
anism, 54, 76, 92; mathematical 
relations of, 148; a system of 
adaptations, 149; reign of law 
in, 274; purpose in, 320. 

Useful, norm of the, basis of prac- 
tical construction, 18. 

Value of individual, 89. 
Vanderbilt, William H., 296. 
Vermiform appendix, 153. 

Walker: Philosophy of the Plan 

of Salvation, 217. 
Washington, Mrs., 172; Gen. 

George, 299, 302. 
Wealth, a means of power, 243; 

causes of present thirst for, 252; 



effect of effort for, 252; none 
useless, 296; definition and dis- 
cussion, 296 (analysis, p. xxxi ). 

Wellington, Duke of, 231. 

Weston, 303. 

Wheat, adaptations of, 151. 

Whitman, Rev. Dr., non-recogni- 
tion of, 300. 

Will, type of power, 5; definition, 
place in order of activities, 24 
(analysis, p. xix.); free cause, 
under control of reason, 27 ; free- 
dom of, 36 (analysis, p. xix.) ; not 
measurable in terms of matter, 
120; no will-force, 128; culmi- 
nation of spirit's power, 304; 
dictator in spirit-activity, 50; 
conquering power of, 244. 

Woman, importance of culture 
of, 173. 

Wordsworth: Ode to Duty, 174; 
sonnet, 220. 

World, a thought-system, 9, 83, 
206. 

Worship, universal, pantheism 
and, 141; theism and, 161; of 
reason and humanity, 276. 

Wreck, of spirit, 51, 284; of life, 
if no future, 200. 

Zeuxis, 64. 
Zoology, 225. 



SCRIPTURE REFERENCES. 



P. 322. — Johnviii. 46. 

P. 323. — John iii. 16; 1 John iv. 

10; John xv. 13, 14; 1 Peter i. 8; 

1 John iv. 19; John xiv. 15; Ps. 

xvii. 15; 1 John iii. 2. 
P. 324. — John i. 29; 1 Peter ii. 24; 

John viii. 34, 36; iii. 3; 2 Cor. 

v. 17; 1 John i. 9; i. 7; John xv. 

5; Actsi. 8. 
P. 325. — Phil. iv. 13; Rev. iii. 20; 

John xiv. 23; 15, 16. 



P. 326. — John xiv. 27; x. 28, 29; 

1 Thess. iv. 3; Lev. xix. 2; Col. 

i. 21,22; Hah. ii. 14. 
P. 327. — Eph. iv. 31, 32; Matt. v. 

48. 
P. 328. — Matt. xxv. 31, 32, 33, 46; 

Rev. xx. 12, 13; 1, 3, 4; xxi. 3, 4, 

5; John iii. 16. 
P. 329. — Matt. x. 39. 
P. 330.— Rom. xi. 33-36 



